Can money be enough?

Everybody wants to be rich.  Most of us want to have more than enough money.  Most of us are fearful about not having enough money. Can money really be enough?  There is nobody I personally know who feels they have enough money.  There is also nobody I know who has declared that there are one hundred percent satisfied with what their job pays them or what they earn in their respective businesses. There is always something else to buy. Have you noticed that having the “latest” is a big fat lie?  If your objective is to have the latest you are going to be in problems.  Say you buy the latest phone out there.  Isn’t it just a matter of time (sometimes days) before a new version comes out?  Same thing with a car. There already exists a newer model of that car. Trying to have the latest is like trying to catch a mosquitoe.  You never seem to quite be able to catch it and even the few times that you may have, another one quickly replaces it. Even if it is not about the latest, there are always more exotic brands of shoes and clothes to buy.  There are always more varieties of groceries to load onto your shopping tray. There are always more holiday destinations to go to. There is always a new restaurant to try out.  Now I am not saying that these things are necessarily bad but to be able to put things in perspective, we just need to understand that. We need to keep our sanity when messages of bigger, better, smarter and faster are constantly being throw at us. There will be a new bigger tomorrow.   The state of enough money is elusive as well because expenses will always go up.  That is not a surprise. We sometimes act like it is but it truly isn’t.   Bread costs more than it did five years ago.  It costs less than it will five years from now.  Maybe you have been working for a while. Think back to your income five years ago.  It’s probably a lot more in absolute terms.  If you had been given this income five years back you might have thought then that it would be enough. However we tend to spend more as we earn more.  In some ways it’s unavoidable.  You have to put food on the table, take your children to school and pay rent even though expenses are increasing. In other ways it’s simply our unchecked appetite for more things.  Even if we convince ourselves that a specific amount of money is enough, it will not be.  If you want ten million shillings and you get it, you will probably want fifteen million shillings. When you get that, you will chase after twenty million and so on.

So if money through a specific amount or trying to acquire the latest or because of necessity by expenses going up, will never be enough, isn’t it time to change our perspective somewhat?  Firstly accept that that latest gadget will not make you happy.  I definitely believe money does not in itself bring fulfillment. That new phone is like a plastic sheet covering a hole in the ground.  The sheet can hide the hole for a while, but the fact is the hole still exists. For a while you may be distracted by the beauty of the sheet and forget there is a hole.  When you get tired of the sheet, you can even replace it with one of a different colour and get distracted again temporarily.  However there is still a hole that cannot be filled by plastic.  We all need to find what fills our hole i.e. what truly gives us fulfillment. That is when we can finally get the experience of enough and use money as tool where need be rather than deluding ourselves that it is the end destination. Imagine the depressing life of believing that latest item gives you this fulfillment or fills your hole only for newer versions of that same item to keep coming out. When we take people through a process of discovering this in our Personal Financial Management program, people are able to come to terms with truly important things such as control over their own time, time with family, travel, spiritual growth, have an impact in different areas, quality life for family etc.  Are there people who have still come out and said they want to have a specific car?  Absolutely.  But the motive for it is now completely different.  It’s just about an experience they personally want to have and not about a never-ending cycle of having the latest.  Once you also realise money is not going to be enough, you also stop waiting to do certain things.  Plan and go for your family holiday.  Don’t get into debt over it but intentionally plan for it if it is one of the things that you truly value. It’s not really how much you spent but the fact that you have taken that time away. You don’t have to have wait for money to spend time with the people who are important to you.  Just do it. You may find that you are wasting a lot of time doing things that are not truly important to you.  You don’t have to wait for money to help others.  There’s a lot of impact you can have by just being available e.g. volunteering, mentoring etc.

Start filling that hole from wherever you are. Do not wait for the perfect place or destination. Don’t waste time trying to catch the mosquitoe. Don’t wait for money to be enough because it probably will never be.