That is a very familiar story. In a society where many people are chasing income pressure, status and success standards set by others, knowing how to be satisfied with current life is also a form of maturity. Not everyone needs a bigger house, a more expensive car or a job with a higher salary to feel happy.
But the story changed when a new opportunity appeared. A small company invited my friend to be in charge of the right field he once wanted to pursue. The new job was more interesting, greater autonomy, but the income in the first six months was only about 60% of the current. After many calculations, he decided to refuse because of fixed expenses such as rent and tuition fees for his children, leaving the family with not much space to try a risky option.
Then, he said a very thoughtful sentence: "It turns out what I call is enough, only enough if life continues as it is now". That is probably a different way of looking at the word "sufficient".
Perhaps it is necessary to distinguish between two types of "enough". One type is sufficient to maintain current life. The other type is sufficient to be able to change when life opens up a new direction.
This difference shows that money is not only meaningful in buying more material things. The greater value of money lies in the ability to make choices. A person with a good provision will have more room to consider when facing an opportunity. Conversely, when finances are too tight, many doors can be closed even when those are valuable opportunities.
After that experience, my acquaintance did not rush into the wheel of getting rich. He continued his current job, but started building a separate fund not for the purpose of buying a house, buying a car or investing. He called it a "change of mind fund".
That is a rather interesting concept. An amount of money is not intended to serve the purpose of owning another item, but to protect your own right to choose. So that a few years later, if another path appears, you can ask yourself: "Do I want to change?" instead of starting with the question: "Do I have enough money to change?".
Perhaps, "enough" should not be simply understood as how much money there is in the account or how many assets you own. Enough is also when people have the ability to choose the way of life they want.
Recently, many people often talk about... early retirement because for them, the current job, plus the pressure like that is more than enough. Retirement, it may be a smaller pension, but reduce the needs, that's... enough. But that is also something to consider. Because the greatest value of money does not lie in what it helps us buy, but in the doors that it helps us have the right to step through when standing at the turning points of life.
