How Much is Enough?
I love watching squirrels do their thing: climb trees, collect nuts, and bounce around. With a good cup of coffee in hand, squirrels can provide endless entertainment. One thing I’ve noticed from watching squirrels is that they’ve never seen a nut they don’t like. They seem to have an endless ability to pack walnuts, acorns, or other seeds up into their cheeks.
Humans are not that different. Our desire to accumulate is not unlike that of the everyday squirrel. We spend our hours scrambling around our neighborhood and stuffing our mouths with the nuts that sustain our existence. Like squirrels, it’s rare to meet another human who passes up an opportunity to pack another nut into its mouth. I believe we have a strong biological desire to continually collect the things that will sustain our existence: money, possessions, and food. But unlike squirrels, we also have a rational mind. We have the ability to plan for the future, choose to help others in need, and have within us the ability to push back on any of our biological motivations.
So this brings me to the question: how much is enough? As a human, how many “nuts” do we need to gather? The question of sustenance for human beings is interesting because in most developed nations, humans are beyond the point of collecting for survival. Utilizing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is easy to see that most people in developed countries have their physiological needs (the lowest level) met. Food, water, shelter, and sleep are accessible to most and beyond that, our government, nonprofits, and churches attempt to provide for those who don’t. (There are of course many in the United States and countries around the world who do not have these things secured, but for this post, I’m specifically addressing those who do.)
On an individual level, how do you know when you have enough? Let’s utilize a car as an example. How nice of car is good enough?
A car that starts?
A car that starts and gets good gas mileage?
A car that is used, but under 100k miles?
A luxury car?
A car you paid cash for?
A new car?
A car for both spouses?
A new car for both spouses?
The collection of “more” is a drive within each of us and can easily be seen in the desire to continually improve our vehicles. We like having new things, we are drawn to better gas mileage, we want to try out new technology, or we seek out the newest safety features. But how do we know we have “enough” of a vehicle?
At a bigger level, considering the FIRE conversation, how do we know when we are prepared to retire? Should our goal be to accumulate as much as possible until we die? Or should our goal be to invest/save enough so that we can stop accumulating but never run out? And is retiring even a thing we should be seeking?
I don’t have an answer, but I do know that squirrels don’t reach an age when they need to stop collecting nuts; they merely collect until they die.
