How much money is enough?
For John D. Rockefeller the answer was “just a little bit more.” At the pinnacle of his success, Rockefeller had a net worth of about 1% of the entire US economy (about 1/3 of a trillion dollars). He owned 90% of all the oil & gas industry of his time.
You might be saying if you had half of that you would feel you had “enough”. 😊
The real question is what is “enough”? Is it an amount? Is it an attitude?
Having money is wonderful as a tool, but not a goal that provides happiness or security. What is the difference? If you believe that “I will be (happy, comfortable, secure,…) once I have $XXX,XXX” you see money as a goal. What is it you want out of money? Security, happiness… it cannot provide these.
Money can be a means to many wonderful things. In this sense, it is a tool.
Money is a storehouse of wealth. You probably began your economic life by offering to exchange with the world some of your time, work, ideas and knowledge for some money. Unless you come from a family with a lot of money, you likely started out wanting money to pay for some very basic things – you wanted to make sure you had enough money for shelter, food, transportation, healthcare, etc. It’s hard to imagine having more money than you could ever spend.
There is an economic concept known as Diminishing Marginal Utility. It refers to the phenomenon that each additional unit of gain ($$) leads to an ever-smaller increase in satisfaction/happiness. For example, two bites of candy are better than one bite, but the 3 whole candy bars do not add much to the experience (and could even make it worse).
So what does this have to do with investing and money? Do you know what financial peace would look like in your life?
Financial peace (having enough) in my life would mean…
- Debts?
- Savings?
- Income?
- Investments?
Have you defined financial peace in your life OR do you have a clear, written plan for pursuing financial peace? If not call our office (864-862-9269) or click this LINK to schedule a time to define what financial peace would look like and develop a clear plan for pursuing it.
Dave Conley, CFP