The meaning of “Enough”
In the pursue of Ferrari and a mansion or something else
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch 22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have . . . Enough.
This short brilliant story by John C. Bogle made me sit and think for a while.
How much is enough and how does one define the meaning of enough for themselves?
People often say that enough is never enough.
For some, this would mean that they’d always pursue more money, power, luxuries, status, respect, or knowledge, doing good, giving to charities as there’s always something to be achieved next. I can get behind this perspective, but I also see the wisdom behind being satisfied with what you already accomplished.
In terms of financial wealth, most of us are incomprehensively far away from the hedge-fund billionaire.
When you’re in a position of thinking how to cover the next rent or buy food for the night, your focus is on how to survive the next day or week, how to save a few more dollars, or from who else to borrow money. It’s not a great place to be in and unfortunately too many people are in that position.
Money can certainly help covering these essentials, solve major life problems, and buy happiness to an extent.
I like to refer to this article stating that the minimum amount that someone needs to be relatively happy is $50,000 and the maximum where more money won’t make you happier is $90,000.
You can see plenty of examples in the news of extremely rich people who are unhappy or depressed, and some of them going as far as committing suicide.
In most cases, we really don’t need as much to be happy as we think we need.
If I look at my personal life, I’ve always been relatively happy, sometimes more, sometimes less, but my basic needs were always met. As I’m in Europe, the perspective of money could vary greatly compared to the U.S.
In some countries here, you will be living like a king with $50,000 per year. For example in Bulgaria, the annual household income per capita is $3,628 in 2018. This doesn’t mean that everyone is unhappy there. It’s all very relative and coming from such a background could definitely make you appreciate the smaller things and pleasures more.
For me, money has never been a primarily goal, but at the same time, I’d like to live comfortable knowing that I have financial safety and security in the long term.
I’d say enough is when you hit this financial stability in which any amount of money wouldn’t significantly change your life. What do you think?
