Enough is Enough

What do you think about when you hear the word “enough?” Minimalists want consumers to think about whether they have enough stuff. Economists want workers to think about whether they’ll have enough for retirement. Dieticians want eaters to think about if they’re getting enough nutrients. Parents (and bosses) want kids (and workers) to think about if they’re putting in enough effort. Investment advisors want investors to think about if they’re getting enough return.

So how much is “enough?” You would think with the amount of focus placed on it, we’d have an answer. Is 2% enough return? How about 6%? 12%? Who decides? And when do you move from “enough” to “greedy?” Should you eat more than five fruits and veggies a day, or is that just enough? How about the vegetarians who eat more than five servings? And what happens if you abhor fruit?

In a world where there is plenty — like the world so many of us live in — figuring out “enough” can be tough. I remember getting a letter from a woman in her seventies who had a crap-load of money and was bemoaning the pathetic interest rates currently available. She wanted to know if she should “give those mutual funds a try.” I wrote back and asked, “How rich do you want to be when you die?”

Sometimes our sense of enough is skewed by the abundance we see around us. If my next-door neighbour, my best friend, and my sister all have newly renovated kitchens with sparkling appliances, fresh cupboards and granite counter-tops, can my twenty-year-old (perfectly functional) kitchen be enough?

I remember going into my cousin’s closet, oh, three decades ago, back when Candies were a shoe. She had every frickin’ colour of Candies! There must have been 30 pairs. They weren’t expensive shoes but just how many pairs would have been “enough?”

I’m a tea drinker, and sometimes it seems that the honey nut must have done a tango with the green tea because I have so many versions of nutty green tea it makes it hard to decide what to choose. The first time I get that feeling of “too much,” I put a moratorium on shopping until I’ve used up a specific percentage of my “stock.” When I left TV I said no new clothes until I’d worn out 30% of my wearables. I ended up giving away a large percentage because so many of those TV outfits didn’t suit my personal style. But I didn’t count those giveaways.

We have freezers and cupboards full of food, closets full of clothes and shoes, cupboards full of dishes and glasses, pots and pans, knives and forks. How can we not know we have enough?

The thing most people would agree they are short on is time. If only I had more time. I just don’t have time! Boy, if I had time…

What would you do with more time? Read more books, listen to music, garden, knit, cook, think? If I could wave a magic wand and give you eight more hours in your week just for you, what would you do with them?

You can give yourself that time.

Think of all the time you give over to making money to buy stuff that’s extraneous to your needs. Even to your wants. You can’t complain about not enough time if you willingly chose to swap it form MORE STUFF.

When will you have enough stuff? How will you make sure you have enough time?

If you’re thinking, “Well Gail, I need to make enough money now so I can afford to retire. I’ll have plenty of time then,” ask yourself this: How much of what I am making goes to taking care of my future self and how much goes to rewarding my present self for working by shopping? (You work hard, you deserve…)

The woman who wrote me had enough money. One of the reasons she felt the need to try and make more was because all her friends had been talked into mutual funds and she felt she might be missing out on something.

When I asked my blunt question, she wrote back, “Ha Ha, I take your point. Thanks. It’s a relief.”

Knowing you have enough — of anything — is a relief. But you have to keep that sense of relief front and centre in your mind for when the Gimmies come to get you. They will. You’ll be watching some decor-porn on television, flipping though some magazine, listening to someone talk about their new whatever, and the Gimmies will try to reach into your brain and say, “There must be more.”

You can choose to say right back, “No thanks, I have enough.”