This post is 556 words, about a 3 min read. Enjoy!
The writers Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five) and Joseph Heller (Catch-22) were at a glamorous party outside New York City. Standing in the palatial second home of the billionaire host, Vonnegut began to needle his friend. He described the exchange in a poem published in the New Yorker in 2005:
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel Catch-22 has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
The hardest question that I ask myself about money is:
What is ENOUGH for me?
I know without a doubt that I will make more money this year than I did last year. I will make more money next year, the year after, and the year after.
The problem is, it is so easy to grow my lifestyle to match my new income. Once upon a time, I just needed enough money to buy the newest video games. Then I just needed enough money to be able to get fast food and put gas in my car. Then I just needed enough money to pay my bills.
Now, I need enough money to pay my bills and go on vacation and pay for a wedding and a new car and and and and and and.
You get the idea.
However, if I keep adjusting my life by increasing my spending to meet the new income I make. This will ensure I never become wealthy.
But this is incredibly difficult not to do. The reason is Social Comparison. Seeing others accomplishing things that I aspire towards or doing things I have dreamed of is challenging. There is an expectation that I have had for my life and seeing other people meet those expectations much faster than I have is hard.
It is hard because of one thing, EGO.
So then what do I do?
I think this saying has a solution:
Happiness is the result of REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.
I need to ground my expectations for life. To do this there are 3 questions I have to ask always:
What matters to me?
What will never be risked for more?
What is the minimum for me to truly be happy?
I love a prayer of Solomon in Proverbs 30:7-9:
Two things I ask of you;
don’t deny them to me before I die:
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me.
Give me neither poverty nor wealth;
feed me with the food I need
Otherwise, I might have too much
and deny you, saying, “Who is the Lord?”
or I might have nothing and steal,
profaning the name of my God.
The goal, in the end, is not to be super wealthy but rather to be CONTENT!
Stuff I Enjoyed This Week
Morgan Housel explains the idea of Enough in this video
Jack Raines, from Young Money, challenges the belief of money being the ultimate marker of success.
Nick Maggiulli, from Dollars and Data, breaks down if an income of $200K is a "good" income. The answer might surprise you.