I have been asking myself “is this enough?” for about fifteen years. The number that constituted “enough” has changed — obviously — but the question has not. Not once. Not when we crossed a million. Not when we crossed five. Not now. The goal post does not move. It does not exist. I know this intellectually. I have read the research. I have nodded along to podcasts about hedonic adaptation. And then I open my spreadsheet at 11pm and run the simulation one more time, just to check.
My parents came to this country with almost nothing. They built a life through sheer relentlessness — the kind of work ethic that does not come with work-life balance or therapy or weekends off. They gave me everything they could, which was enough and also never enough, because the anxiety transferred along with the ambition. The drive to accumulate is not greed. It is fear wearing a suit.
Here is what I have learned, and I am telling you this as someone who is still learning it, badly, in real time: safety does not come from a number. It comes from acceptance. You would think at a certain net worth the anxiety would just stop. It does not.
I built this for people like me. The obsessive checkers. The ones who know their FI number to the dollar and still do not feel safe. This will not give you peace. But it will give you a number grounded in your actual life — and sometimes having the math laid out clearly is the closest thing to peace we get.
And then you will probably run it again next week with slightly different assumptions. I know. I do it too.
Enter your numbers below to find out how close you are to your “enough.”