What is "enough"?
There’s nothing like a major life milestone to bring on a spell of deep reflection. Since having our daughter a few months ago, I’ve really been chewing on the question of, “What is enough?”
I’ve been asking myself questions such as:
- What do I need in order to feel fulfilled in my day-to-day life?
- What are the experiences that fill my cup?
- How do I want to allocate my time?
- What is it that I value most?
- What does this look like today? Next year? 20 years from now?
Sorry, folks, but this one might leave you with more questions than answers (not that I claim to have all that many to start with). Maybe that’s the point?
Enough is elusive
It’s at the core of any real financial planning endeavor. Yet it has a way of eluding many of us. If we are fortunate enough to fully wrap our minds around the concept one day, it’s likely to shapeshift and escape our grasp not long thereafter, leaving us searching once again for an accurate description of what breeds true contentment in our lives.
It’s almost never a simple question to answer. It makes sense, though. Life is far from linear. People evolve. Circumstances change.
Then there’s the fact that it’s different for everyone. No one can tell me what enough is in my life, just as I can’t tell anyone else what enough is in theirs. Though, as a financial planner, I get to have a lot of fun with gently nudging people to find their answer.
Is enough a number?
I think not.
At least, it’s not the best place to start. Sure, a number is necessary to punch into a financial plan. We need to have that data point as a goal to shoot for, so we know how to build our resources up to it. But what is it that the dollar figure represents? What does it do? What is the significance? What will that money be in service of?
Because the reality is this: a number, alone, is void of any meaning.
A common “enough” question revolves around the idea of retirement. Most people we work with ask some version of the question, “How much money do I need to stop working for a paycheck one day?”
I just typed into Google, “How much money do I need to retire?”, and the AI Overview told me:
“A common benchmark is to save 10–12 times your final annual salary or aim for a portfolio that allows you to withdraw 4% annually. For many, this means a total nest egg between $1 million and $1.5 million, though this varies heavily based on location (e.g., $700k–$2.2M+ in the US) and lifestyle.”
Great! In reality, this largely tells me nothing. Obviously, blanket guidance is rarely all that helpful in specific scenarios. But this is a stark example of that. Sure, it’s better to build up $1 million than $0. Nonetheless, the numbers provided are empty. As would be my response if I attempted to answer a person’s “how much do I need” question before doing the real work of learning what truly matters to them.
The point is, I can’t begin to tell someone how much money they need if I don’t yet know what that money is meant to be in service of. Life is not purely numbers.
This is why, at Upbeat Wealth, our initial planning process includes an entire meeting dedicated to learning about the values of the family we’re working with before we begin offering recommendations.
How do you know when you have enough?
You don’t usually get in the car without knowing where you’re driving to. Unless, of course, you’re an angsty 17-year old Eddy in his ‘96 Crown Vic, blasting The Eagles, windows down, going wherever the road would take him, finding peace in nothing more than the warm southern summer wind and that freedom that only a few bucks of gas can buy… Ok, digression done. You can’t make it to a destination unless you have one to begin with.
Here’s the thing, though: money, on its own, makes a terrible goal. Winning the lottery, getting a big inheritance, landing that promotion, finishing first in your high-stakes fantasy football league… None of those are sufficient if you haven’t done the real work first. You have to first understand what purpose the money will serve in your life.
Ok, now you might be thinking something like, “I’d sure feel like it was enough if I was making triple my current income!” (and not gonna lie, that does sound nice). Still there’s a ton of research out there that remains generally mixed.
An older study from 2010 by Daniel Kahneman indicated that emotional well-being increased as income rose to $75,000 and then basically flatlined from there. In 2021, Matthew Killngsworth refuted this and determined that well-being did rise with income even as it exceeded the $75k mark. Interestingly, hold the phone, the adversarial dynamic duo later teamed up in 2023 and found a more nuanced result. They saw that, generally, higher incomes were associated with higher levels of well-being for many people. However, for people classified as “unhappy”, higher incomes did little to improve their overall level of happiness.
My takeaway is probably overly simple, but I can’t see a way around it: “Happy” people have figured out how to align their resources with what’s important in their lives. If you’re “unhappy”, more money, alone, is not a magic bullet. And if you’re “happy”, having more money increases your ability to fill your life with even more of what brings you satisfaction.
Someone might earn what’s considered a “good” salary. At the same time, if that income isn’t used intentionally to align with the person’s values, it is essentially worthless. It comes and goes.
You could have millions set aside. Yet, what is that money really worth if you don’t have a clear definition of what enough is in your life?
Don’t skip the critical first step: Get clear on what’s important to you and your life. Find your destination.
To answer the question, my best guess for how you really know when you have enough… I wager it’s more of a feeling than anything you can put your finger on.
If your money could talk, what story would you want it to tell?
Here’s a thought exercise I’ve been toying with… I personify money and ask the question: “At the end of my life, what will you have done for me over the years?”
What story would I want Money to tell me in response?
Immediately, I know I wouldn’t want Money’s first words to be anything like:
- “I grew to such-and-such balance across all of your accounts”…
- Or, “I compounded at an average annual rate of x% over your lifetime”…
- Or, “Y% of me was allocated to tax-advantaged and tax-free accounts”…
There’s no emotion in any of that. It sounds a little empty.
Because it’s not about Money. Money is simply a facilitator. It’s the outcome that matters, the life that’s lived.
I would hope to hear something raw. Something with teeth to it. Something that moves me. I’d want Money to tell me a tale that makes me smile. The kind of smile that grows deep inside and extends to every corner of my heart. It’s a story I’d yearn to hear time and time again. That story is beyond the scope of this post…
If you put Money in the hot seat, what would you hope to hear?
So what is enough for me now?
My current version looks something like:
- Spending time with my wife and daughter
- Seeing a smile on their faces
- Supporting my wife’s dreams and ambitions
- Raising my daughter to see the best in herself and be a positive force in the world
- Sharing time with our loved ones and friends
- Experiencing new places, cultures, and ways of life
- Getting outside into nature on a regular basis
- Prioritizing my physical and mental health through an active lifestyle
- Having flexibility in how I distribute energy between my family and my business
- Serving client families that inspire me
- Being generous with my time and resources so that I can have a positive impact on others in my community
That list right there. That’s my north star. Or as we call it here at Upbeat Wealth, my Statement of Financial Purpose. It’s an ever-changing work in progress, and that’s ok with me because I want it to always represent what’s most important to me in the moment.
If I’m doing it right, my money – my financial plan – will only ever be enough if it facilitates those things above.
Eddy Jurgielewicz, CFP® is a Partner and Lead Financial Planner at Upbeat Wealth, a fee-only firm based in New Orleans and serving clients virtually across the country. He specializes in providing straightforward financial guidance to ambitious young families as they navigate life’s many milestones.
Do you have questions about what we shared in this post, or anything else in general? Feel free to schedule a free consultation or drop us a line!
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