Survival, Comfort, Luxuries

I was reviewing the page out of "Your Money or Your Life" yesterday, that had the fulfilment graph (parabola) to remind myself of some key living values.

There are 3 categories of fulfilment: Survival, Comfort and Luxuries. Once one reaches the level of luxuries, then the "enough" point is reached. Should you surpass the enough point, then the law of diminishing returns drops the fulfilment curve down so that you are not getting the most value from further monies spent or "bang for the buck" if you will.

The reason I needed to remind myself of this graph is because the word "enough" can mean different things to different people. There are plenty of blogs out there where it is obvious that "enough" to the writer means survival--the least amount spent on housing, clothing, everything. There are others who prefer to live less small and enter into mortgage contracts and vehicle purchases and have lifestyles that on the outside look like "most people". The blogs of people who have reached their enough point seem to be already retired. I haven't found any blog yet of people who are living their enough life now while saving for early retirement. That's what I am working on.

I've found it very easy to get caught up and excited about how others live and want to change my direction to incorporate new ideas. It's easy to get carried away. So I find it necessary to come full circle and ground myself with my plan again, albeit affected by new knowledge, to remind myself that my definition of enough includes comfort and luxuries, not just survival.