An essay on how much is enough.
John Bogle, who founded Vanguard Group on the idea of low-cost index funds, told an anecdote about when money is enough.
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.
Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.”
This anecdote aptly brings out the dilemma in life.
Our early life is spent preparing to earn a living, and the rest is spent on a treadmill-of-desires-and-consumption where getting on is easy, but getting off is difficult.
Getting off the treadmill-of-desires-and-consumption is difficult for two reasons:
We don’t know how much is enough.
Life is filled with uncertainties.
We can never accurately guess how much is needed to take care of day to day survival, to educate children and give them an initial start in life, to provision for health and to carry us through old age towards the inevitable end of the journey.
Often when a money-goal is within reach, the goalpost is moved further out (like the picture below).
Lifestyle creep.
When we are earning little, at the beginning of our working life, we are usually living frugally. However, as income increases, desires multiply.
A competitive keep-up-with-thy-neighbour syndrome coupled with a constant replay of picture-perfect Instagram lives of celebrities creates an insatiable desire to expand lifestyle.
There is constant sense of discontentment with what we have. No sooner than a goal is achieved it is replaced by the next one. After a road trip to a local destination, one desires to fly to see a wonder of the world, and then one wants to fly business class and after that may be a private jet.
Seneca, the philosopher, also grappled with this two thousand years ago.
The ideal amount of money is that which neither falls within the range of poverty nor far exceeds it.
Moreover, we shall be satisfied with this limit if we previously practised thrift, without which no amount of wealth is enough, and no amount is not ample enough.
Hence..
Enough is a decision, not an amount.
You need to decide when you have enough.
Enough is in the mind.
Enough does not mean you stop having goals for a better life. It is about choosing what is really important for you instead of blindly chasing money.
Enough is balancing ambitious goals with a mindset that:
- Stops comparison with others.
- Enjoys the journey you are on.
- Develops the skill of contentment.
Enough in Other Aspects of Life
Having enough applies not only to money, but to other aspects of life as well.
One area is photographs.
We spend more time capturing and sharing an experience, instead of experiencing it.
What is more important – being present in the experience or capturing it for posterity?
At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough.
You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it.
It is enough.
– Toni Morrison
After all,
The One Who Knows He Has Enough is Truly Rich.
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