How much money is enough money?

[Martina]

earn what you can, grow what you can and be happy - sounds ideal

earnings are relative, but happiness is infinite

Total agree there.

Martina

[TheGoodEarth]

About £2M would set me up nicely with my ideal self suff smallholding and help provide an income in old age until I die. I really don't need any more than that.

[george]

Enough to cover the bills and have a bit set aside for emergencies and a bit of fun money too I think.

However, the fun money part comes down to priorities. Would you rather sit in an office all day so that you can buy a new designer dress or would you rather be pottering around in the garden. I know which one I would choose but I also have some friends who really would rather have the new dress.

I am teaching English in Korea at the moment which pays reasonably well (in my opinion) and I am easily saving money as there is just not much that I want to spend it on. However, I also know lots of people here who aren't saving money and even one who is getting increasingly into debt the longer she stays and I am having real trouble how they can be spending all their money. So I guess for those people enough will never be enough!

[clare]

Enough to pay for bills,food and warmth but Hubby buys a euro millions lottery ticket every once in a while and it was 68 million the other week and I said I wouldn't want to win, that is just too much money to deal with,no one needs that much money in their lifetime......

[Stonehead]

Enough to pay for bills,food and warmth but Hubby buys a euro millions lottery ticket every once in a while and it was 68 million the other week and I said I wouldn't want to win, that is just too much money to deal with,no one needs that much money in their lifetime......

Oh, I don't know. How many bales of £10 notes would you have to burn to keep your house warm through winter? I suspect 68 million wouldn't be enough to last a lifetime of Scottish winters...

[george]

I vaguely remember reading about some of study which was done on money and happiness. As you got more money you got more happy but only until you had enough to pay the bills and a decent amount of savings for emergencies. After that if you got more money you didn't get any more happy and maybe even got less happy.

I can't remember where I read it but just remember the 68 million won't make you happier!

[Mal]

Yes, the old saying -

"Money doesn't make you happy, but it sure takes the sting out of being poor"

I was reading about Mercator (the cartographer) the other day, he had a smallholding for a bit - in 16th century Belgium(ish) - which worked fine until one year the crops failed and, like most of the smallholders in the area, he ended up destitute. I think that's the significant thing for me, and repeats what some people have already said here, which is that low/no income is fine until poo hits fan, at which point you have to have good reserves to ensure you don't end up working for 'the man' again but in a worse situation.

[Millymollymandy]

The more you earn the more you spend, I think it's a fact of life. Someone earning 10 times more than we do probably still wonders what is 'enough' money and how they will ever achieve it. Though as we are not big spenders there was actually a point during one of my OH's corporate jobs where he earned way more than we could spend even with a massive mortgage! Anyway it was a good thing as we saved what we didn't need to spend and not very long after he got the sack and we had to live off those savings for 3 years!

[Green Aura]

Enough to pay for bills,food and warmth but Hubby buys a euro millions lottery ticket every once in a while and it was 68 million the other week and I said I wouldn't want to win, that is just too much money to deal with,no one needs that much money in their lifetime......

I think this is what puts me out of step with much of the rest of society.I can't possibly imagine what that sort of money would do to your lifestyle.

I have no desire for a big house - more to clean, heat etc and we'd rattle round like a couple of peas in a can. I occasionally watch these house buying programmes with my mother - can anyone tell me why houses have to have a bathroom per bedroom? And why does everyone need huge amounts of personal space - my bedroom was good enough to get away from my parents.

We both work from home, admittedly I have a shop and workshop at one end of the house, but OH works in the dining room. He doesn't need a purpose-built office, just a place to plug his computer and broadband connection.

We have all the gadgets we can use - in fact apart from the computer I'm looking to replace power tools with hand tools as they break, maybe not all though

I neither need nor want a large car (never have - I've always found paying more for a car than a house obscene)

We've never been great travellers, in fact OH has never left these shores

Maybe I just lack imagination, although it never fails me in other areas of life. It worries me that people who are always striving for more money are lacking something in their lives, and I think that's a shame.

Here endeth the lecture

[pumpy]

I s'pose it all depends on your expectations. We are both very content with "our lot". We grow/brew/bake/ our own stuff, are happy with each others company, & are quite happy just "pottering-about". Money doesn't buy contentment........nor friends!!(but it can buy you a better class of enemy).

[the.fee.fairy]

I think that enough for me would be the day that i have no debts, and can feel free to go to the cash machine, or to buy the book.

Sorry guys, but i do want a bit more than i've got. I want to be able to live independently, preferably in a house that is my own - then i can do as i wish with it, i want to be able to to buy the book that i want, or to go out when i want, rather than look at the penny situation.

I don't want a life of luxury, but one of comfort and the cash to be spontaneous would be good.

[seacuttercat]

When do you know you have 'enough'?
I am a student, so 'enough' is what the NHS deem the lowest acceptable amount to give us.

I think its hard to see other people doing things that you can't do because you havn't got 'enough', but you probably do things that they dont - like having the time to grow something from seed and then eat it in a soup - and I should imagine a fair few people dont get 'enough' of that.

If I had a pound for every time I have said 'I havn't got enough money for that/to do that/to buy that' then I would probably have enough!

[yvette]

What's tricky is when a couple can't agree on what's enough! I would like to live more frugally than we do, but my partner is in love with music and can't imagine not having disposable income to spend on gigs and other music-related stuff, and I can see how vital those things are for him. Perhaps 'enough' includes the capacity to experience what you love, as well as meeting the necessities of food, shelter etc.
Another thing that occurs to me is that people may need enough to be able to participate in a modest way in society if they want to - a drink in the pub or cafe, membership of a group or society that's important to them...
Maybe its a case of each of us finding a definition we can be comfortable with?
Yvette

[Wombat]

Some good points here!

I am still working in the corporate world, albeit more as a backroom boy these days, less stress and the pay is the same. We have just spent out a bit to do the house up (new kitchen and bathroom etc.) and luckily we were able to do it without going back into debt. I still earn more than we can use and we are starting to accumulate some cash to allow me to take a break and smell the proverbial roses. We hopefully won't need a lot of cash and some of the stuff we are going to buy will help (12 volt freezer; aquaponics system). We have been through some tough times, particularly when the kids were younger, and we have always thought that if you had food on the table and the bills were paid................you had enough!

Nev