Sunday Afternoon Musings on DGI: ”Enough”

I have been thinking a lot lately on the concept of ‘Enough’.  What is enough? When is enough?  Are we missing out on getting to ‘enough’ when we are so focused on getting  ‘More’?

Modern societal influences tells us to do more, have more, live more.  Is more too much though? 

Do we need new car, the bigger house, the new shoes, the new technological gadget?  Or is ‘enough’ enough?

Do we need to work longer, harder, just to get more?  Is this what our life is for?  Work, work, work until we have everything we could ever want, even if it doesn’t add any true happiness?  

My thought is probably not.  

Can getting to enough save you five, ten, fifteen years of working?  Can it save you from having to work while your kids are growing up? Can it save you from missing out on life?

The concept of ‘enough’ applies to both our work and our investments.  Is there a point where what you have or what you have obtained is already ‘enough’?

For work – we keep going for the new job with a higher salary because we are told that we should continue advancing.  We get promotions to get a “better” title.  We work extra hours to get the higher rating each year.  We work more years to add that extra ‘X’ amount to our net worth.

For our investments, we add more money, more time invested, wait for one more year or two to increase our balance or extra padding in our dividend income.

What is it all for?  What are we giving up?  Time with our family, time focusing on ourselves, both mentally and physically.  Delaying that world trip, or time at the beach.

When is ‘enough’ enough?

We as dividend investors are investing to eventually use our passive income to replace our active income to cover our expenses.  Two factors will determine when this switch can happen – the amount we invest and the amount of expenses we have.  

By focusing on enough, we can speed up this timeline.  If we currently spend $4000 a month on ‘more’, we can cut back to ‘enough’ to only spend $3000.  This will require less monetary investment and less time to get to financial freedom.

If we don’t control our desires and expectation on living the “good life”, and being ok with enough, we delay our financial freedom.  

By identifying your ‘enough’ you can pinpoint what your goal in investing and life can be.

My wife and I have been trying to figure this out lately.  We have been blessed with good incomes and have diligently saved and invested.  Should we keep going to have more, or should we get to the point of enough and live our life?

The decision process continues…