There is a topic that has been bugging me lately. Maybe you too.
What is enough? How will you know when you have reached it? Will it be like at the end of a marathon, where there are two posts you run through with a rainbow arch of balloons and a water station? We both know that is unlikely. A more critical question is, how much is enough for you? For your family to be OK. Enough to fulfill your obligations, send your kids to college, or your pets to obedience school (We have the diploma). Pay off your house if you choose to own one, travel a bit, and ensure there is enough in case you need some in-home help. I don’t know about you, but this feels bleak and unfulfilling.
The entire financial advice community is built around helping clients have enough and then standing at the ready to sell them the product that will surely get them there. ING (now reorganized and rebranded) ran a fun and popular ad campaign that showed people walking around a major city made to look like yours carrying a large orange number under their arm (literally a large number) that represented what they needed to have set aside to retire. I will set aside how you come up with “your number” calculations for another day, as it would miss the point. By the way, there is no way to know with certainty what your “number” is. It changes as your life changes.
What may be more important than your number is what is enough, and the follow-up question is, what will I do when I have enough? Let’s address the first question. What is enough, and what stands in my way of having enough? There are two challenges to finding enough. You have to think about what enough would look like. Is it a number? Careful. When you arrive at a number, you may find that a bigger number comes to mind. Is it a quality? A sense of peace and tranquility? Maybe, but that, too, is elusive. One minute, you are peaceful, and the next, the neighbor fires up his shiny new leaf blower. …did you know you can spend $2,235 on a leaf blower? Neither did I. I looked it up. This leads to our second problem. We now have 1000s of advertising impressions hitting us each day, suggesting that if we just had X, our lives would be richer and more fulfilling, more glamorous. The internet, your email inbox, your TV, and even print ads and billboards all make little suggestions that if you just bought this, your life would change.
The book Wanting by Luke Burgis suggests we don’t desire anything independently. We imitate others, such as what car our neighbor drives. Did you know you can statistically predict the car in your driveway based on your city, state, and Zip Code? Advertisers rely on it.
I have some anecdotal evidence that our desires come from observing others. I grew up in the 70s. We had bikes. We rode them to our friend’s houses and found ways of entertaining ourselves that mainly consisted of outdoor activities when the weather was good. Other than a bike and a good pair of ice skates, my list of wants was relatively short and usually 80% satisfied by birthdays, holidays, and whatever I could scrape together from mowing lawns. Sure, I could give you examples of when I was mesmerized by certain cars I saw, but it didn’t run my life. Not until later, anyway.
Now, my lifestyle has escalated a bit, which I blame primarily on the internet, TV, and the fact that I live in the LA area rather than Des Moines, Iowa. This is probably inaccurate, as I am pretty sure Des Moines has the internet.
Here are some thoughts on what enough looks like, and I invite you to create a list of your own.
- Being able to retire but wanting to continue working
- Leaving work early enough to make your kid’s soccer game
- Working on a charitable board
- Running for office
- Moving somewhere cheaper to paint, garden, or play bridge
- Leaving a home that you love so you can be closer to your best friend, children, or grandchildren
- Sitting by the lake and fish
- Selling everything and buying a boat so you can sail around the world twice
- Flying east to get to Japan instead of west and drinking champaign in first class
- Selling your business to your employees
- Cutting your hours in half and caddy at your local golf course three days a week
All the above are modified real-life stories of people who arrived at enough. I invite you to start writing your story of enough. We are here to help if you like because we have some cool tools for helping you discover your enough. We’d love to be a part of your story.
Warmly,
