How much is enough money for you to make in a year?

I don’t mean how much is enough for you to live on or your salary goal. Let’s pretend your basic expenses are met and you’ve even met your income goal. Beyond that, what is enough?

It’s kind of an odd question. What do I mean ‘enough’? Is there even such a thing as ‘enough’ money? Isn’t more always better?

I think there is such a thing as ‘enough’ with everything - including money, but it’s only something I’ve recently considered. The idea of having ‘enough’ is not mainstream in our culture. We’re driven to keep accumulating without thought to a maximum amount. This attitude is a surefire way to never be satisfied and we’ve seen that play out in most of our lives.

When I heard about this idea about having ‘enough’ in our life, it got me thinking - why don’t we all think about life that way?

Consider the company Basecamp - sure, they make a great product, but so do a lot of other companies. Basecamp, the company, is different than most because they have a very specific philosophy about growth*.

*How do I know about their mindset around growth? I listen to their podcast, read their blog, and read their books. You should check them out!

Before making a decision to grow, they ask themselves some questions, such as:

• How big do we want to be?
• How will that affect our employees?
• How will that affect our current customers?

Just the act of stopping to think about the potential consequences of growing a company is rare. Most businesses just assume growth is good - that’s what we’re always told, right?

At Basecamp, they challenge the common wisdom. Instead of blindly following it, they ask questions and decide not what is right, but what is right for them.

This brings me back to our money topic, because just like business growth, we’re all told we should make more money - that more is always good. But is it?

I was listening to the podcast “Being Boss” and they were interviewing Jason Zook. At some point, he asked, “What salary, for you, would be enough?” (unsurprisingly, Jason is also a fan of Basecamp and their philosophy).

I had never thought of my salary that way before. I mean, I have a number I need to bring in to pay the bills, and a bigger number I’d really like to earn, but I never had a number for ‘enough’. I always assumed more was better, which is funny because I don’t think growth is always better. I never stopped to consider that more money might not be better either. We all have our blindspots.

On the podcast, Jason talked about what can happen if you haven’t thought about what is ‘enough’ income for you to make. At some point you’ll hopefully hit your minimum amount to live on. Eventually, you might hit your stretch goal as well, then what? Do you keep pushing yourself to make more? What sacrifices and choices will you have to make? What are the physical, mental, and emotional consequences? Do you want to take those on?

If you’re like me, you wouldn’t stop and think it through at all. Once I hit a goal, my next step is to make another goal to push forward. It’s just what I do. I think it’s something our culture has trained us to do.

But what if there was a point where you did enough? You made enough, were satisfied enough, just felt like it was enough? For me, that kind of sounds amazing, like I could finally relax and/or start focusing on something else in my life.

If I had a plan for what I consider earning ‘enough’, what would I do if I surpassed that number - just by accident? I like to think I’d give it to charity and use it to help someone else. I clearly don’t need it. But if I kept pushing myself to keep earning more and more and more, I’d feel like it was my money and I’d probably be less likely to share it with others.

I don’t know, but I like the idea of earning ‘enough’ money. Because money isn’t everything in life, just like growth isn’t everything in business. It forces you to think deeply about what you really want in life. You, hopefully, make more conscious choices and purposeful actions. You know when you can stop because you have a point that’s ‘enough’.

I like that. Instead of following conventional wisdom, I’m going to think about what is ‘enough’ in all kinds of areas of my life and see what interesting thoughts it brings up.