Freedom From Want
On having enough.
I was doing some thinking the other day about money — namely, that I make enough of it. I never thought I’d hear those words come out of my mouth: “I make enough money.” I don’t make a lot — although it sounds like plenty — but enough.
As I’ve progressed up the wage scale from the 15th Percentile of US workers in 2012 to the 91st as of 2018 (that feels surreal AF to type out, and never gets less weird), I noticed the amount of money coming in became less and less of a motivator for me. I save about 11% of it — the rest, I spend or donate. (Also: I don’t have kids. So it doesn’t matter what I do with my money.) I don’t budget. I don’t balance my checkbook. And I really don’t yearn to earn more. (I don’t even put my columns behind the paywall yet. I’ve probably lost out on thousands of dollars.)
Maybe you think that’s fiscally irresponsible, or at the very least fiscally apathetic, and that I should be amassing a formidable nest-egg, or investing more of it in the “market,” or buying nice “stuff.” I’d like to have a word with you.
“Money changes people,” is a common refrain. In my experience, with one glaring exception, I cannot agree with it. Mostly, I believe money — a significant amount of it, anyway — makes people a more extreme version of the thing they already are.
