I recently attended a talk about investment strategies related to Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE), which is a framework for saving a lot in order to retire earlier. The speaker’s motivation for doing his version of FIRE was simple: he wanted to get out of the corporate world as quickly as he could so he could do what he liked. He said, “When other people bought fancy meals and clothes and cars, I invested in the market.” He wanted his money to work for him and not the other way around, so he would have enough to quit his 9-to-5 job.

That got me thinking about what is enough in two senses: What’s enough in terms of acquisition AND what’s enough to retire. Both questions have a philosophical component; they both depend on what you need. So, let’s spend some time thinking through this.  

We’ll start with what’s enough in terms of acquisition. This is an age-old human question; just ask Lao Tzu. In the Tao Te Ching, he says, “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” This is a tough concept, because our whole culture and economy are grounded in the idea that no one can ever have enough. And it’s so much easier to compare ourselves with others than it was in good old Lao Tzu’s time. We’re constantly bombarded with messages saying we don’t have enough skin creams, Legos, luxury handbags, and so forth. It’s endless.

So, how do we step off the hamster wheel of consumption and get clear on what we really want? I’ll turn to Jacob Needleman for help here. He wrote “Money and the Meaning of Life” in 1995, which influenced the early life planning movement. In this book, he argues that we fundamentally misunderstand the role of money in our lives. Money itself isn’t good or bad; based on our beliefs, it just plays a good or bad character in the sitcom of our lives. We think it has the power to give us security, happiness, and even self-worth, when it’s really just a tool. It’s a neutral means to an end, rather than an end in itself. Based on all my conversations with financial life planning clients, I have to agree.

Based on that understanding, Needleman goes on to say that we each have to define what we truly need in order to build a reasonable relationship with money. Notice that I said “need” there, rather than “want,” and that’s rather the point. It’s so easy to confuse wants with needs in this society, isn’t it? Needleman argues that our most basic needs tend to be psychological and spiritual rather than material. If you want to reflect more on your true needs, you might take a look at this book, particularly the User’s Guide and discussion guide. I also wrote a blog post about Minimalism that might help.

I’ll throw one more philosopher at you, and then I promise I’ll stop. This one is Mark C. Taylor, who wrote “Confidence Games: Money and Markets in a World without Redemption." He says our quest to accumulate money can be seen as a desperate attempt to distract ourselves from the knowledge that life is uncertain. In our search for “enough,” what we’re really looking for is safety and security in an unstable world…and we’re just not going to find it. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can let go of the illusion of wealth as an insulator and start using it to find some real human connections and experiences. Taylor wants us to focus more on what creates meaning in our lives, and less on stockpiling money to keep us “safe,” because no one is safe.

Both Needleman and Taylor are making similar points; we need to figure out what we truly value to get rid of the feeling that we never have enough. As I heard over and over in my practice, it’s never about the money. It’s about caring for each other and making memories and building relationships and opening our minds to new experiences and ideas. It’s about something human…well, for most of us. Once we know what we really need, it’s a bit easier to see that another Hermѐs scarf probably isn’t going to help. No offense to you or your Hermѐs scarf.

With that dose of “the big scheme of things,” let’s shift to the question of how much is enough to retire. If you don’t need to keep up with others, retirement starts to look a little more attainable, doesn’t it? First, as you plan for the day when you don’t have to work to pay the bills anymore, you definitely need to know how much you’ll be spending. Try that on for a while, if you aren’t already; what sort of lifestyle suits you? Do you want to do some kind of paid work? Unpaid work? Where do you want to live? In order to know how much you need to quit that corporate job, you have to know how much you’ll be spending, and for how long.

This is where a financial life planner comes in handy. They can help you figure out how much you need to spend, make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, and look at how your income and/or assets will cover that spending over time, all with inflation in mind. They can also help you create a plan to get there, either ASAP or somewhere down the road.

If you’re looking to ditch your 17 gigs or corporate shackles sooner rather than later, you might be interested in my previous post about FIRE. There are a lot of flavors of FIRE, too, so make sure you explore which one is the best fit for you. Even if you don’t decide to become a FIRE adherent, your financial life planner can still help you figure out the best way to invest and earn to get to financial freedom on your timeline.

A final exhortation: While you’re going about your business, saving like there’s a FIRE or doing a slower chug toward your version of freedom, don’t forget that life moves pretty fast. “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” (thanks, Ferris). Remember the whole point of this, which was to use money as a tool to help you focus on the real meaning of life, whatever that is for you. Don’t save like Scrooge to the point where you miss it.