Enough is a number I have to choose
💎CORE ARGUMENT
Nothing in the world will tell me when I have enough. Left alone, the sense of it moves, and always in the same direction, one step ahead of whatever I have.
I had thought of enough as a feeling that would arrive when the facts justified it. It does not work that way. I measure against the nearest comparison, and the comparison moves when I do. A salary that seemed generous in 2020 is the baseline in 2025. So if the stopping point is going to hold still, I have to fix it myself, in advance, as a number.
Mine is 18,000 euros. That is the sabbatical fund, and I wrote the figure down before the year began.
Writing it down did three things I had not expected.
- It made a finish line. Without one, saving is a virtue that never ends and so gives no satisfaction.
- It made other decisions smaller. The promotion would have meant more money, and when the answer was no I could ask a plain question: does this move the date? It hardly did.
- It gave me something to be wrong about. In December I did the sum properly and found the number buys four months of the sabbatical I actually want, where I had been saying six. That was unwelcome. But I could never have found the error in as much as possible.
The third point is the one I would keep if I had to drop the rest. I do not claim the number is correct. A written number can be checked, argued over with Jonas and revised on purpose, and a feeling only drifts.
This is 💎 Good enough is a rational stopping rule applied to money, and it is the gentler half of 💎 There will always be more to do than a life can hold: I cannot do everything, so I had better know what would be sufficient.
Where I might be wrong. Choosing a number is easier with a salary like mine, no dependants and a partner who pays half the rent. For someone whose expenses are not theirs to set, choose your enough is glib.
I have also only proved that I can reach a number. Whether I can stop is another matter. The fund passed 18,000 on 29 December, and my first thought was a larger figure. The real test of this note starts now, and I have not yet passed it.
How this note changed
- 6 April 2025: Written after the Sunday money check. The number already existed. The claim that I had to choose it did not.
- 21 December 2025: Did the sum. Eighteen thousand is four months of the sabbatical I want, not six. The number was wrong and I could only see that because it was written down.
- 29 December 2025: Fund passed the number. Raised to mature, with the last paragraph of doubts added.
🧱BUILT FROM
🌍WHY IT MATTERS
- The target is written, dated and visible on the goal page.
- Windfalls go to the fund until the number is met. After that they do not, and I do not raise it by reflex.
- When I want to revise it, I say so to Jonas first and to the spreadsheet second.
☑️NEXT STEPS
- Write the number on the goal page before 1 January
- Redo the sum against the sabbatical I actually want
- Decide with Jonas what happens to the monthly transfer now
📖 Housel on enough: the hardest skill with money is getting the goalpost to stay where it is.
💎 Good enough is a rational stopping rule: set the aspiration first and stop when it is met. 💎 There will always be more to do than a life can hold: the other finite thing, where no number is available and I have to choose anyway.
Satisfaction is judged against a reference point that moves with circumstances, so the feeling of enough keeps receding. A number fixed in advance does not move. It turns an open-ended appetite into a target that can be reached, checked and revised on purpose.
A fixed number can be a failure of nerve presented as wisdom. Jonas wants a flat, and a flat has no modest version. A person who decides early what is enough may only be deciding not to find out what she could have done.
Held as a value in 🧭 Enough. Counted in 🎯 Fill the sabbatical fund to 18,000 euros. Argued through in 🕯️ How much is enough for a year off, and drafted for January as 📝 Issue 54 - A sabbatical is a stock too.