If you’ve read any of the more popular personal finance blogs, books, or attended any of the seminars, one of the more pervasive themes is the idea of enough. Heck, I’ve even written about it before. Just what is enough, or how much is enough. They’ll tell you that you need to find your “enough”, and then hold yourself to it. Instead of using the inflated “enough” that the Joneses next door use, you’ve got to take a good look at your finances and find your own “enough”. Now, a show of hands, how many of you have actually found what enough means to you, and held to it?
I can’t actually see your hands, so maybe a show of hands wasn’t the right way to measure the tally. But, I’d bet that only a few of you actually would have put your hands up. Why? Because, you struggle with enough. I do too. Enough is an arbitrary measurement. What you think enough is today isn’t necessarily going to be enough tomorrow. So many factors go into what we believe enough is, and many of them change regularly.
A few years ago, if you’d have asked me what enough was, I would have told you that it was having a good paying job, a nice house with room for my family, and enough leisure time to enjoy the benefits of having those things. Today, my answer is a bit different. I quit my job a few months ago, and have had no other income besides what a part-time job and a handful of small sites provides. We still have my wife’s income, but, compared to what we were making before, it’s a fraction of what it was. Today, enough has a totally different feel to it. And, we struggle with it. Just like I’m betting you do to.
The struggle is rooted deep into our psyches. Growing up, we’re inundated with commercials touting the latest and greatest toys. As adults, the only difference is the price of the toys. Instead of a “Castle Grayskull Playset“, we want to have the newest credit card with all the fancy bonus miles, the new car with the rearview camera, or the house with the dedicated room for a library or mancave. And that doesn’t even begin to touch the use of money as a security device.
People fear being broke. A quick reminder that the name of this site is Beating Broke, will tell you that even I am not immune to the fear of being broke. I’ve got a small secret to let you in on though. Like “enough”, how you define “broke” makes all the difference in the world. For some, being broke means making less than $100,000 a year. If that’s the case, my family is way beyond broke. Even when I still had my job, we were a full-time income away from making $100,000 a year.
What does broke really mean to you? To me, broke is a place where you have tons of debt, and your income is the only thing keeping you afloat. You’re stuck in a job you don’t like, so that you can make money to pay your bills. The funny thing is, I feel less broke now that I don’t have a full-time job, than I did when I had my job. Part of that may be straight up delusion, but it’s true. But, I think a good part of that also comes from changing my definition of enough. Instead of the good paying job, nice house, and leisure time, my definition of enough is something that feels a little bit more like satisfaction. I’m satisfied with just barely making enough to pay the bills. I’m satisfied with finding free or low cost activities that will entertain us.
And yet, we struggle with it. For the last few weeks, I’ve been struggling with the idea of getting a new full time job. Partially because the income from this and other sites hasn’t scaled to the degree that I thought it might. Partially because with the amount that I’m making we teeter on that precipice of being able to adequately pay our bills. And, partially, because we still struggle with the definition of what enough is.
What is your definition of enough? How has it changed over the years, and do you feel that your definition of enough is enough?
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
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Hey there – I found your link over on J Money’s website and I love the post I came across!
For me, it seems like “enough” grows up with you. At age 10, “enough” is like a million dollars because you don’t have any real life experience to cling to.
But now that I understand how life is played, “enough” means being able to take the risks I want to take without being dangerous about it (AKA a year of income so I can take a year off, etc).
Maybe when I’m 80 “enough” will be being able to walk in the mornings!
@SJM Thanks for stopping by! For sure, “enough” changes as we age, as we learn new things, and as the people in our lives change as well.
I think enough is subjective and very individual. At one time, I thought $5k per month net without any debt was enough. Maybe it was inflation, but that is no longer enough. I will have enough in retirement to do all the things I want to do which includes travel, maintain a reasonable lifestyle and have choices.
@Krant Not to mention relative to situation. Enough, as a number, is going to change based on where you live, who you live with, etc.
Our “enough” changed significantly when C lost his job back in 2009. Even though I’ve had a significant raise since then, our total household income is about $10k/year less than it was then. And yet, we’re in much better shape financially. We certainly feel like we have “enough” now, even though we didn’t then.
I would like to be able to put a little more into retirement savings, but I have a plan for that, so I can see a future when we have “more than enough” and are able to donate more of our time and money toward causes we believe in.
Due to personal health problems I’m in a position similar to yours. I really struggled emotionally at the outset. I’d never really worried about money. If I wanted something I just worked more hours to pay for it. My health no longer allows me to do that but I’ve learned that that’s OK. We live beneath our means and don’t lack anything at all. Instead of focusing on what we don’t have we’ve learned to slow down and truly enjoy all of the things we do have. Honestly, that was a really hard reorientation to make. It took me many years to admit that I’d become a stress junkie, and more years to learn to “smell the roses”. Funny thing is that once I learned to quit beating my head against the brick wall of life, things have gotten much easier financially.
Enough for me is total freedom to do whatever I want.
Hence, there is a monetary value to that. With zero debt, I can be more than happy making $65,000 gross a year.
Happiness is independence.
The more we make the more we spend, it is a bad habit that we have to get out of. Unfortunately it is much easier said than done as you work hard for your money and you want to live life and enjoy it by taking vacations or even buying materialistic things that you enjoy.
Great post! The problem with finding our “enough”, is that we, as humans, always want bigger, better, and more. We set goals and try to achieve more. Enough becomes stagnant.
Obviously that always changes based on circumstances at that moment, but I get what you mean. The biggest struggle I’ve seen is that even if you achieve everything on your ‘enough’ list, people immediately start making a new list. So there’s never enough.
I think being “broke” is not having any money in the bank – therefore not able to pay for/buy anything without taking on debt.
We have “enough” money when we can pay for all of our bills/expenses, live a comfortable lifestyle and be able to purchase what we want. For some of us, we don’t want much… so $50,000/yr is more than enough.
What a great post. I’ve been struggling with enough over the last couple of months. Will we have enough money to have a child? Will have a big enough house for kids? Then it dawned on me, enough is what I want it to be. Do I need a bigger house? No. I need to be able to provide food and necessities, everything after that is a bonus. We need to start being happy with what we have!
I usually get by on more than ‘enough’, as when I get paid I like to treat myself to a few luxury items, clothes and food. But if I really need to save money, it’s amazing how little I have to spend.
If I walk to work and only buy economy food, I can probably spend less than 100 pounds a month (excluding rent). And I live in an expensive city.
Ah – this is such a struggle.. where is that line! Appreciate your being real and sharing your own struggle here. Did you ever find another job?
@Aaron Yeah, started it a few weeks ago. Loving it too!