How much is enough?

Financial anxiety runs rampant in our society. I think at the core of this issue is the need to reframe what having money actually means.

Yes, it’s a way to provide.

Yes, it creates a feeling of security.

Yes, it allows us to live a certain quality of life that we would be precluded from experiencing without it.

But how much money is enough? Is there ever a point where you can and should say, “I have enough money?” If so, why don’t you ever hear anybody saying that? The reason is that society preys upon our financial insecurities and to some extent our innate greed.

Have you ever heard these attitudes expressed, or maybe expressed them yourself?

• Money is scarce, and you should get all you can while it’s available.

• We need to earn more, so we can spend more.

• You can never have too much money.

• We need to work harder, so we can afford bigger and better homes, cars, vacations, etc.

If you compare the present moment with history, the way we live now is supersized to the max, all for financial gain. There’s a great benefit to the commercial powers that be to have you in this mindset. It is a form of emotional enslavement, in a way.

But money wasn’t created to be this way. It’s true purpose is to be the means by which we are able to connect with the “goods” in our life – making memories with family, caring for ourselves and our neighbors, maintaining our health, and creating experiences that enrich the world around us.

Thinking about money isn’t bad. Having money isn’t bad. These are all positive things, right?

It’s how we do these things where the potential for malevolence lies.

When our relationship with money becomes unhealthy, when we worry too much about money, we give it too much power. This can cause us to lose sight of what its purpose is: to increase the good in our lives. Money is not the root of all evil; an unhealthy attitude towards money is, because it perverts our natural tendency to connect with goodness. A flawed money mind transforms our desire for goodness into anxiety.

To answer the original question, how much money is enough? It’s a trap; there is no answer. You’ll never feel like you have enough. The world is working against you ever feeling that way.

Here’s what you should focus on instead.

A healthy money attitude positions money as a mean to an end, not the end itself. We can’t allow ourselves to lose sight of our purpose; money is just a string of numbers unless we contextualize it in meaning.   

So instead of questions such as “Do I have enough money” or “Am I saving enough money”, the questions should be something more like these:

• What is my ideal life and how do I gain the means to achieve it?

• What are the “goods” in my life that I should direct my money towards? How much further do I need to go to do that?

• What is the best possible use of my time on earth? How can I maximize goodness, using my money as a resource to make all of this happen?

In the process of financial planning, we start by taking an inventory of the goals that a person wants to achieve. We then look at what financial resources you have to support those goals in the future. Those resources include the usual: brokerage accounts, IRA accounts, and savings accounts. It also includes non-monetary items such as your will, your insurance policies, etc. These things should be viewed as accessories, as support mechanisms to achieve the life you want - not numbers on a page to be worshipped and obsessed over.

When we think this way, we gain wealth. We don’t just have money, we have wealth when we can put money into a healthy place in our lives.

If you’d like to discuss your wealth plan for this coming year, please set up a time.