[No. 461] Index Investing is “Health × Time”—What Lies Beyond Wealth Building
In June 2025, I wrote an article like this.
👉 [No. 19] Index Investing is “Health × Time”—Wealth Building for Me 💹💪🌱
It is about cultivating your body, your mind, and your life, little by little.
What I wrote in that article back then was
“Isn’t index investing actually health × time?”
—that was my own personal take.
More than a year has passed since then.
I have continued investing, continued strength training, and stood in the fields. The time I spend thinking about wealth building has increased, and I have written various things here on this note.
There are parts where my way of thinking has changed.
Even so, when I re-read the 19th installment, the core idea of “health × time” remains unchanged even now.
If anything, I have come to feel the meaning of it more strongly than before.
Is wealth building really just about increasing money?
This time, having written over 400 articles, I would like to think about this theme once again.
📖 Articles themed around investing are compiled in a magazine.
Please take a look at this as well if you like👇
👉 Cultivating the Future—Renji Enko’s “Trust and Entrust” Investment Record
Long-term investing requires a long time ⏳📈
I am currently continuing to build my assets primarily through index funds.
I invest monthly, and rather than repeating buying and selling based solely on short-term price movements, I hold them over a long period of time.
Of course, just because it is index investing does not mean that assets will definitely increase in the future.
The stock market has periods of growth and periods of significant decline. There is also the possibility that it may not grow as expected over a long period.
Even so, the reason I choose long-term investing is not to keep guessing short-term price movements, but because I want to place my capital in a wide range of companies and markets and walk alongside their changes.
Ten years, twenty years, or even longer.
Taking time for wealth building also means that I myself will be aging by the same amount.
This leads to a single question.
In what state do I want to live during that long time?
In the future where I spend my money, my own body will be there 💪🌿
When thinking about wealth building, it is inevitable that one’s eyes turn to the numbers.
How much by what age? How much are my current assets? How much do I need to invest monthly to potentially reach a certain amount in the future?
I, too, have run simulations many times.
However, it is I myself who will actually live the future that lies beyond those numbers.
Going on trips. Continuing to do what I love. Spending time with family and loved ones. Living a life that is as much my own as possible, even as I age.
When I think about those scenarios, money alone does not complete everything.
Of course, health is not something that can be completely controlled by one’s own efforts alone. No matter how careful you are, you may still experience illness or injury.
Even so, I will move my body as much as I can now, think about my diet and rest, and face my own body.
Just as I prepare assets for the future, I want to keep an eye on the person who will live that future—myself.
For me, wealth building and health are connected here.
Muscle training and gardening are also wealth building for the future 🏋️♂️🌱
I continue not only with investing but also with muscle training.
Just because you train once doesn’t mean you’ll have your ideal body the next day. You continue, you rest, and you continue again. In that process, you face your body little by little.
A field is the same.
Even if you sow seeds, you cannot harvest them the next day. You prepare the soil, water it, and nurture it while dealing with the seasons and the weather.
There are things that cannot be helped by your own power alone.
Even so, you continue to do what you can.
Investing, strength training, and farming—the things they deal with are completely different.
However, within myself, they all lead to the same place.
Cultivate capital.
Cultivate the body.
Cultivate the soil.
Do not seek answers immediately; face them over time.
The roots of the way of thinking I now call ‘Underlying × Cultivation’ may have already been within me since I wrote the 19th installment.
Do not look only at the future and let today pass by 💰🌏
When you continue building assets, a feeling of ‘more’ emerges.
I want to increase my investment amount a little more. I want to increase my assets a little more. I want to reach the next number.
I have those feelings too.
However, the purpose of asset building should not be just to make the numbers themselves grow indefinitely.
For future peace of mind.
To do the things you want to do.
For time with the people who are important to you.
It is because there is a purpose that you are building assets.
Thinking about it that way, I also feel uncomfortable with chasing only the future asset amount and putting all of today’s life on the back burner.
Do not sacrifice the present too much for the future, and do not use up the future for the present.
Finding your own balance in the time between.
Living in the present while preparing for the future.
I believe that, too, is a form of wealth building for oneself.
Rethinking “Health × Time” once again ⏳🌱
When I wrote the 19th installment, I described index investing as “Health × Time.”
Reading it back now, it feels a bit incomplete.
Index investing itself does not create health, nor does holding for a long time guarantee a profit.
Even so, what I wanted to convey with those words remains unchanged.
If you are going to prepare for the future over a long period, you should also cherish the self that is living through that time.
I don’t know what my asset balance will be in 20 years, what the market will look like, or what my life will be like.
That is precisely why I am doing what I can now for an uncertain future.
Cultivating capital through investment.
Cultivating the body through strength training.
Cultivating the soil in the field.
When I wrote the 19th installment, I hadn’t yet articulated it as clearly as I do now.
But now, having written over 400 articles, I can see a bit of what connects those three things.
The time spent growing assets and the body that lives through that time.
Cherishing both, I move forward slowly.
Cultivating today in order to live tomorrow.
The phrase “Health × Time” that I wrote back then may have, before I knew it, connected to the “Underlying × Cultivation” that I advocate today.
For me, wealth building will surely continue to be an extension of that.
⚠️ Note: Regarding the financial information covered in this article
📝 This article is based on the author’s experience and personal opinions.
💹 It is not intended to recommend any specific financial products.
📊 Information may contain errors due to revisions or updates.
✅ Please make your own decisions and investments at your own risk.
Underlying × Cultivation
Fields, bodies, and investments—a way of life that keeps on tilling.
Renji Enko