On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I spent a lot of time using their subway, and I was struck by how seamless the experience was. No matter the time of day, I could always board the next train. Even during rush hour, I never had to skip a ride because of overcrowding. As a result, no matter where I wanted to go, I could reliably reach it within 15 minutes.

This got me thinking about wealth. In the Philippines, you can be rich enough to own a Land Cruiser and still waste hours of your life driving through EDSA. In contrast, in Hong Kong I managed to grab lunch, visit a zoo, and stop by a mall in three different areas—covering 15 kilometers—in less time than it would take locally to drive 10 kilometers for dinner in BGC. The sidewalks were wide, the stations air-conditioned, and I could use my phone on the train without worrying about theft. A basic commuter in Hong Kong has a better transportation experience than even the wealthiest car owner in Manila. In that sense, the Hong Kong commuter is wealthier than a Filipino driving a Ferrari through EDSA.

A commuter wealthier than a sports car owner? That might sound odd, since when we talk about wealth, the focus is usually on making money. Where should I work? How should I invest? How much should I save? These are important questions, but wealth is more than just money. It’s the totality of goods and services you can access.

Consider a thought experiment. Imagine a magic wand that gives you unlimited goods and services, but in exchange, you can never hold money again. You can eat what you want, live where you want, and own anything. Now imagine the opposite: infinite money but you’re stranded on a deserted island with no goods or services. Which would you choose? Most people would pick goods over cash, since money that can’t buy anything is useless. As Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations: “It is not for its own sake that men desire money, but for the sake of what they can purchase with it.”

Your wealth, then, is not just what you privately own. It also includes the public resources available to you. Public transport, parks, healthcare, and schools all form part of your wealth because they are part of your consumption.

In the Philippines, being wealthy often means buying private alternatives to weak public systems. To avoid floods, you pay tens of millions for a house in a private subdivision. To get decent healthcare, you pay for private hospitals. To give your children a quality education, you pay for private schools. But in other places, public systems already work well enough. In Hong Kong, Singapore, or Japan, flood control, healthcare, and schools are reliable by default. You’d need to be a U.S. Dollar millionaire in the Philippines to experience what these countries consider a “basic life.” And this “basic life” is actually superior to what a rich Filipino enjoys, because they get to access all these resources without going through flooded, gridlocked streets.

Politics affects your wealth because you are a consumer of public resources. When transport systems are efficient, healthcare is reliable, and schools are strong, the wealth of every citizen increases. Fewer people are forced into crime, and life becomes more convenient for everyone—including the rich. Without good governance, only the rich can afford private solutions, and even then, those solutions will bump against public failures, like a private luxury car driving on congested public roads.

True wealth, therefore, goes beyond your private balance sheet. Public goods and services form part of your consumption, which makes them part of your wealth. When they are widely available, everyone—including the rich—benefits. A society with accessible healthcare, education, and housing produces a healthier workforce, lower crime, and greater stability. Adam Smith put it plainly: “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”

If you are serious about maximizing your wealth, you cannot think only about your portfolio. You must also consider how society is governed, because your private quality of life will always be affected by the public institutions surrounding you.