How Much Is Enough?

By Josh Manifold | Principal | Advisor & Matthew D. Kane | President | Partner

John D. Rockefeller was the first American billionaire, courtesy of Standard Oil. For a time, he was also the richest man on earth. A reporter once asked him, “How much is enough?”

To which he famously replied, “Just a little bit more.”

While we’ve never counted a Guilded Age titan among our clients, many of our clients are remarkable wealth builders in their own right. They are remarkable at generating high amounts of income and accumulating assets.

That said, net worth is not the metric we see most often correlated with contentment. “Enough” is an unattainable outcome if expanding your wealth is your highest priority. We may not say it with such language, but it often shows up more subtly. It shows up when we are driven by our next purchase or experience, assuming one might finally bring us contentment.

We can tell you from decades of helping families make financial decisions – more money only fixes so much.

Can more capital give us more freedom and stability? Absolutely. But do we often spend or invest in decisions that lose their ability to fulfill? In many cases, our pursuit of contentment is like buying a car: “It loses half its value the moment you drive it off the lot.”

Our goal as your advisor is not just to help you accumulate more wealth. It’s to help you invest it in a life rich in fulfillment. So, how much is enough? Maybe our answer is less measured in net worth and more measured in relationships, purpose, and contentment.