How Much is Enough? – Episode 431

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors.

[00:00] Prosperity thinkers, here’s the question we’re going to lead out today, which is how much is enough? This actually stems from a conversation I had with a friend of mine. And I can’t wait to have this conversation with Kim. Yay! You’ve probably had the conversation with families time and time again, where they may be affluent or just starting out and they’re thinking to themselves, how much is enough? Have you heard that about once or a million times? Yes, yes. So you’ve heard that question often. How do you answer it? Well, it’s an interesting thing because I think that you can answer it numerically. I know Patrick Donahoe, as an example, has got something that he’s floating out about the Internet these days of really dialing in and getting super specific

[00:53] about the number that you need. And Jimmy Vreeland, my co-author on Busting the Real Estate Investing Lies, he talks about your strike number and you can just jump on Yahoo Finance or any type of online system and get a projection as to what amount of money you need in order to live a certain lifestyle for a certain number of years based on a whole bunch of assumptions. So you can actually answer that, how much is enough? If you can dial in on having made some decisions ahead of time, in other words, how much do you want per month for income? Here’s the challenge. First of all, all those assumptions. So if you have an X dollar for income, then you’re going to have a Y amount of money that creates that income.

[01:38] But it’s based on interest rates and inflation rates and taxation rates and growth of the money rates and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I have done those types of calculations for literally 30 years. I know how categorically misleading they can be. And certainly at the bigger numbers, maybe it’s less of an issue. You know, if you’re off by something here or there, maybe it’s not that big of a deal and you can actually answer the how much is enough and either already have that amount of money or be fairly close to it. But I’m going to challenge our thinking here a little bit today and say that maybe it’s the wrong question to be asking. Because I am all about activating lifelong service, and that means lifelong serving.

[02:27] And when we go into our personal finances with a how much is enough lens, I think it’s an extremely limiting lens, number one. And number two, it’s a it’s a thought process that says I’ve done my duty. Now take me off the list. And that, frankly, is giving death way more assistance than I think is wise for any human being to do. The reason I think it’s giving death assistance is we were put on this earth to serve and when we don’t serve, we are wasting our life. Now, I’m not saying don’t go on vacation, don’t have a chill day, you know, don’t sit in your swing and read something I adore doing. Absolutely do all those things and keep serving, keep serving, keep serving, keep serving. And you could argue, well, I want to not have to worry

[03:30] about earning income while I’m serving. I get that, in which case, awesome. Go answer that question. How much is enough? Make some maybe minimum and some quote bigger. I don’t want to say maximum, but make some little goals and some bigger goals and and do the math and get your answers. Have at it and then throw it away. I just don’t think it’s because, first of all, the assumptions can cause the number to be so out of whack. And then second, it’s just a lens of of minimalistic approach that I don’t think is healthy. I don’t think it’s wise. I don’t think it’s servant oriented. And I don’t want people to be limited or to be unhealthy or unwise or not servant oriented. I think that the prosperity thinkers in our community are

[04:23] of lifelong service. They want to do that. And they also want to have awesome vacations and breaks and sabbaticals and all that. And then they want to get back to work because that’s what makes the world go round. That’s what keeps us lively. It’s actually a part of what keeps us healthy. And as Lewis Howes likes to say, we are given two hands, one to feed ourselves and one to serve others. So the takeaway that I’m getting right now is that, you know, from the the clients and the people that you work with, the friends you have, that it may not be how affluent or how we’ll just say starting out a person may be. It’s something that’s inside of their brain, the way that they view it and work around that.

[05:12] Is that correct? I believe so. Yes. And that is so awesome because we can all start there. It doesn’t matter what your financial situation is. All of this good work begins in our thinking. And we can do that whether we have lots or little, whether we have a clear perspective on the future or not, whether we come from a family that has taught us some of this or not. I mean, that’s so awesome. Education is largely free today. I mean, you don’t have to pay to get educated. If you want to get educated at higher levels, you do. But absolutely any of this kind of thing is available if you just dig for it. And that is so cool because that means that every single listener can benefit from this. And if you do feel like you have this already handled

[06:07] either in your head or in your finances, I think it’s part of your obligation to share that. And I know I’ve had lots of conversations with clients that feel like they do have it handled, maybe not entirely, but to a pretty large degree. And now their focus is sharing that with the next generation, whether that’s adult children or grandchildren or both or great grandchildren. What you’re saying, you know, and I’m going to try and paraphrase a few things is that maybe even some of our listeners that are in the car with their parents and we’re talking teenagers, they could solve the problem of thinking. How much is enough or do I have enough or whatever that limiting belief is? They could solve that now.

[06:51] So they don’t have to go through life feeling that way. Yes, they could learn how to solve it. Now, they will still think that way some of the time, just like I do some of the time. I mean, I fall into this same thinking, but I’ve just learned over time how ineffective it is and how much better results and a more lively perspective I can get when I pull myself out of the how much is enough thinking. And the reason why I have this conversation is because, you know, I have friends at various stages of life, you know, friends that have sold companies and, you know, financially, they probably never need to worry. And I have other friends that are just getting started. You know, last week, I guest lectured at a local school

[07:36] because, you know, I wanted to give back. And that’s kids that are just starting out. What’s so odd is that some of the friends that I have that are incredibly affluent, when we have real conversation, they go, Oh, how much is enough? Do I really have it? And my hope is that we can help these next generations have the prosperity perspective and the people that have already made it, maybe to take the pause that time to realize, wait, it’s OK. I love it. It’s so important to just be alert to this kind of thinking. And Spencer, you did not give back. You gave forward. And that’s an important distinction because giving back implies you took something and you’re giving forward encourages others to also give forward.

[08:34] And it’s a complete shift in mentality, though minor, that I think is really important. It is. Actually, I’m I’m not terribly familiar with that phrase. So I wrote it down and I’m going to be changing the language that I have. I love that. Awesome. Wonderful. Well, for you, as listeners on the podcast, we’re taking the time to give forward. And what would be incredibly powerful is to see how this message multiplies with your efforts. So here’s the challenge this week. Find one way to give forward so you can help others feel like they have enough and then quickly let us know. And you can send that email to us at hello at Prosperity thinkers dot com. It could be just in the subject line or it could be a quick blurb

[09:32] or you could even shoot a video and put that in your email. But let us know how you are continuing to give forward to help others. Send that email to hello at Prosperity thinkers dot com. Does that sound like a plan? Yes. Thank you so much. Great thinking. Excellent. Thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast. If you’re not already following it on Apple, Google, Spotify, our I heart or wherever podcasts are, make sure you’re following the podcast so that you get the new episode every single week. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity podcast to take control of your money and have it work for you. Visit us at partners for Prosperity dot com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.