12th December 2025
Once asked by a reporter how much money was enough money, business tycoon John
D. Rockefeller replied, “Just a little bit more.”
The quest for more is the modern-day equivalent of the Sisyphean struggle. We push the boulder up the hill, working harder and longer to achieve whatever summit we’re chasing, only to have the boulder roll back down to the bottom and force us to begin anew.
Hedonic adaptation—that biological predisposition to return to a baseline after positive events means that no financial win ever quite satiates.
Your current definition of more becomes your future definition of not enough as you
set your sights on the next level that you convince yourself will bring happiness and
contentment.
I’ve seen it happen repeatedly both in my own life and in the lives of those around me.
That thing you once longed for becomes the thing you can’t wait to upgrade.
It’s the phenomenon that leads people to take out a new line of credit for that home addition they don’t really need, to overextend themselves to buy the new car, to go into credit card debt for that fancy new watch, or to allow their health or family to fall apart while they chase some professional promotion.
The answer to this is
‘Lagom’ a Swedish term that translates to “just the right amount.”
Lagom is what everyone is searching for—the knowledge of enough, of balance, of equilibrium.
But, the challenge is that lagom isn’t static; we tends to make it an ever-increasing target.
As you get closer to achieving it, your confidence swells and resets to a higher level.
This subconscious reset from “I’ll be happy when I have X million to “I’ll be happy when I
have triple X, creates the upward spiral of expectations that we need to avoid.
You will never have true Financial Wealth if you allow your expectations—your
definition of enough—to grow faster than your assets.
There is no perfect antidote. Hedonic adaptation means our chase for more is genetically hardwired, but forcing the definition of enough out of the subconscious mind and into the conscious mind is a start.
When I turned 60, I started to contemplate exactly what my ‘Enough Life’ would look like—that is, the life of ‘lagom,’ where I have just the right amount of Financial Wealth.
Rather than allowing my Enough Life to exist in some abstract, secluded region of my mind, I defined it & wrote it down.
You should do the same: Ask yourself,
What does your Enough Life look like?
Where do you live?
What do you have?
What are you and your loved ones doing?
What are you focusing on?
How much financial cushion do you have?
How much do you want to leave behind and in what way.
Importantly, the Enough Life doesn’t have to be simple or spartan; it can be as
ambitious or lavish as you see fit.
My Enough Life has a big home, mainly because I want to be able to host family and friends to make incredible memories.
I have no interest in private jets, yachts, big mansions, supercars, fancy jewelry, and so on.
The point is that it is ‘Your Enough Life,’ not someone else’s, not influenced by social or cultural pressures, not prone to the subconscious escalation of lifestyle creep.
By defining it, by writing it down and keeping it top of mind, you force it into the conscious mind.
This doesn’t perfectly halt the natural upward movement, but it does convert an irrational, subconscious movement
into a rational, conscious one.
Your aim then becomes building Financial strength through income generation,
expense management & long term investment—up to the point where it enables that Enough Life that you have defined.
Beyond that point, the aim shifts to balancing your energy across a broader range of other pursuits.
Once you’ve reached this point, the Enough Life, you no longer need to focus on money and instead you can prioritize more time, relationships, purpose, growth, and health.
Find harmony, define your Lagom & stay blessed forever.