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Having Enough (Thanksgiving Edition)

 I culled my closet a couple of weeks ago, inspired again by Courtney Carver's Project 333 to limit my clothes only to what I intend to wear over the next (in my case) four months. Everything else got put into drawers or taken to an unused closet upstairs.

While I'm sure I've gotten some things wrong (I just haven't figured out what they are yet), it feels like a revelation to walk into my closet:  Not too much, and not too little, it's exactly enough.

The "Fulfillment Curve" from
Your Money or Your Life (Dominguez & Robin)


What does having "enough" clothing look like?

When I left my job as a financial advisor, I no longer had "enough" clothes. I had plenty of clothing for meeting with clients in person; I also had workout clothing and a couple of more formal dresses. But I didn't have anywhere near enough clothing to meet my new daily circumstances of hanging around the house, meeting with a friend or running errands. I've spent the last three months overhauling my wardrobe so that:

  • Outfits match the needs of daily circumstances.
  • Separate pieces combine easily into at least a couple of different outfits
  • Pieces fit well, are comfortable and are in good repair
  • Appropriate outerwear matches up well with outfits (e.g., sweaters)
  • Appropriate shoes have been identified and/or purchased
  • Pieces that are inappropriate to the current season are stored outside of the closet
  • Pieces that are no longer worn are given away or sold

What about "enough" money?

In the novel, David Coppierfield, Charles Dickens writes:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

Having enough money works best in reverse. Rather than earning enough money to cover all of your expenses, it's generally more practical to have few enough expenses that you don't exceed your income.

What does having "enough" money look like? As with your clothing, you would want to take a full accounting of your expenses and look to eliminate the ones that don't serve you. Here's a list of what enough money might feel like:

  • An emergency fund that replaces up to six lost paychecks in a row
  • No increases in credit card debt
  • A methodical approach to paying down non-mortgage debts focused on one debt at a time
  • A methodical approach to investing for retirement
  • A "buffer" savings account that smooths out the cash flow to take care of "lumpy" annual expenses that can be planned for, such as auto repairs, back-to-school expenses or holiday gifts.
  • Skepticism that stuff will make you happy (experiences have a better record)
  • A clear understanding of how many hours of work is required to make a given purchase
You don't need to be a millionaire to be happy and successful. As Dickens points out above, you just need enough. Happy Thanksgiving!

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