You’re not a chump and $22,221 is not chump change.

What it is, though, is what the Kaiser Family Foundation found to be the average cost of a year’s worth of health insurance for an American family in 2022.

And since you’re not a chump, I know you’ve already busted your hump to find the best insurance plan for your family, regardless the amount. You don’t need to be told about HMOs and EPOs, the benefits of a comprehensive provider network and drug prescription coverage, or the importance of keeping both monthly premiums and deductibles low - as difficult as that may be.

So you won’t hear about any of that from me.

But I will suggest to you a less-than-conventional individual supplemental health insurance plan.

It requires filling out no forms. It costs no money and pays out in dividends better than dollars.

The recompense comes in the form of increased motivation. Improved mental focus and clarity. The peace of mind that comes from recognizing how the pieces of your life all fit together.

How do you get such coverage? Find yourself a “quake book” and read its best passages time and time again.

Once Ryan Holiday found his, he went above and beyond - and read his entire quake book 100 times in a 10-year span. Years later, he wrote an article you can find online about how he had benefited from that.

His initial readings of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius helped him as a struggling 19-year-old college student alter his perspective, improve his state of mind, and get a good start in the world. Some later readings led to his third book, The Obstacle Is the Way (Portfolio, 2014).

That book’s success spawned 12 others and two other sweet jobs: public speaker and podcast host. As Holiday says in the introduction to those podcasts, he’s spoken to NBA players and NFL executives, special forces leaders and sitting senators. The daily five-minute email he sends out often as a byproduct of the podcasts, “is designed to help you lead a better life” and is received by 500,000 people.

Oh, and by the way, Holiday’s estimated net worth is $7 million. Equally noteworthy: He’s doing exactly what he wants, living exactly where he wants (on a farm in Texas) - and is still a young guy, about four years shy of the Big 4-0.

In the aforementioned article, “100 Things I Learned Reading the Same Book 100 Times Over 10 Years,” Holiday credits American economist Tyler Cowen with coining the term quake book for any book that not only rocks your world, but also allows you to see something new or reminds you of something timeless and important every time you read it. After reading Holiday’s article, I realized a number of things.

One being that I have four or five quake books that have helped me as much mentally (though nowhere nearly as much financially) as Meditations has helped Holiday. Another being that the title of Holiday’s article could turn you off from ever reading it and cultivating a quake book of your own.

I mean, I read something of substance every night for 60 minutes or so, and I still haven’t come close to reading all my quake books a combined 100 times. But I have read single sentences and short passages highlighted in them more than 10 times that number.

Without a doubt.

If I’m a little down that day or simply feel not quite myself, I’ll grab a quake book that night, let the affixed sticky notes be my guide, and read for 10 minutes or so. It eases my mind - enough that I’ve come to see it as my supplemental health insurance plan. Enough that I suggest you find your own quake book or two, highlight the passages that register a 7.0 or higher on your emotional Richter Scale, and read them again and again and again.

The literary critic Edmund Wilson once observed that no two people ever share the same experience when they share the same book, so it’s possible my 7.0’s won’t create the same quake in you. That said, I still say certain sentiments are universal, so I’ll conclude by sharing three of my favorites from The Art of Stoic Living (Open Court, 2004) by Tom Morris and let you ruminate upon them.

Maybe one will register a 5.0 or so, and that will shake you enough to do as I just suggested.

“Nothing else is the cause of anxiety or the loss of tranquility except our own opinion.”

“There is only one way to happiness ... don’t be concerned about things that are outside the power of your will and don’t believe that anything [outside of you] is really you.”

“The greater part of progress is the desire to progress.”