Giving Compass' Take:

• In this YES! Magazine article, financial guru Vicki Robin details how a life devoted to frugality taught her about “natural wealth” and the value of investing in community.

• What can those who want to become more involved in volunteering and local engagement learn from Robin's example? One takeaway is that there is no price to put on human connections.

• Here's more on what community-led change really looks like.

Whatever we can do for ourselves, do for others, or even do for money is wealth. I still own my handyman and survival skills books, but nowadays anyone can go on YouTube and learn anything, from gardening to running an online business. In one three-year stint in rural Wisconsin and another in the desert outside Florence, Arizona, in the 1970s I chalked up these skills: gardening, putting up food, butchering, engine repair, building, plumbing, attaching anything to anything with screws, nails, and glue — and even making wine out of flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

I’ve also had the time to build close friendships that are like family to me. They see me through hard times, celebrate wins, challenge my assumptions, show up with food when I’m bedridden, and they will bury me in a shroud in the cemetery up the hill when I die. While the Gallup Sharecare Well-Being Index shows Americans have fewer supportive friends now than a few years ago, I’ve invested time in building friendships through small kindnesses and regular check-ins.

I’ve also invested in my community, not out of duty but gratitude. Soon after I moved here, I sought a way to say thank you to this little two-street town that welcomed me ... As my life has shuttled through dances and events and fundraisers and performances and parties and projects here, I’ve gained a visceral sense of a strong social safety net that runs in parallel to government services. It is here for me, and I am part of it, and this is a quiet yet breathtaking “asset.”

Read the full article about the meaning of community wealth by Vicki Robin at YES! Magazine.