Enough.

In his book, the Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel recounts a story told by John Bogle, the founder of the investment company, Vanguard. The story goes as follows:

“At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have…enough.’ Enough.”

This last year I was invited to serve as a mediator for a state program that assisted with distributing Covid-relief funds. This program was instituted for tenants struggling to pay rent during Covid. Under the New Mexico Supreme Court’s Order, for most of 2020 through some of 2022, tenants could not be evicted for nonpayment of rent. It was my role as a mediator in this program to facilitate conversations between landlords and tenants to find a resolution for repayment. This work gave me insight into lives I’ve conceptually known existed, but certainly hadn’t have appreciated (and honestly still can’t fully appreciate).

In one mediation, the tenant, who lived in rural public housing, fell behind on his rent by $1,600. He had been injured in a bicycle accident and lost his job working in fast-food. Without any income, he couldn’t come up with the $300 monthly rental payment. During our mediation, I learned he was a single father of a teenager, and their only means were food stamps. He hadn’t obtained new employment and they were barely scraping by. I’m glad to report the mediation had a happy ending for the tenant.

However, once it was over, I kept thinking of this man and his son. They live on almost nothing. His son likely can never want for new shoes, new clothes, or even many basic necessities. I wondered if they often go hungry. This is happening amongst people in my state – in the U.S.

This mediation was particularly humbling. There are times I feel like I don’t have enough. But the truth is, I’ve never been in the situation this man survives, and I can’t even begin to fathom what not having enough means. Hearing from this man gave me perspective on what enough means.

Enough is relative to what we have. When we think about whether we have enough, we’ll always think of someone who has more than us and we’ll never feel like we are there. The goalpost will always move, we’ll always want more. But, if you look in the opposite direction, and look to someone who has less, you might see that you do have enough.

In my expense tracking template, I have a column to identify “wants” and “needs”. For every item I purchase, I select whether I want it or need it. If I’m objective, a lot of the things we buy are wants. Even some of the groceries. I do this exercise for a couple of reasons. First, if we were to truly experience a hard time, like a job loss, I would have an idea of what we would cut from our budget first – the wants. The second reason, and the most important reason, is for just this perspective I got from this gentleman. We are so lucky. We have enough. When I’m feeling like we might not have enough, I can realize I have the privilege to want. Seeing that I can want helps me recognize just how much we do have.

What does having enough mean to you?