Episode 855 How Much Is Enough
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 855 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:07] Guang Ming Whitley: [00:00:07] I'm Guang MingWhitley. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to build the skills to last a lifetime is key.
[00:00:22] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:36] Scott Maderer: [00:00:36] yes, you can work harder and yes, you can do more and those are good things, but that at the end of the day, you're still content with what you have. You're still okay with where you are. You're not challenged by it. You're not looking at how other people are doing and comparing yourself to them. You're just.
[00:00:57] Looking at yourself. And what are your [00:01:00] priorities and what are your values? Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures. For your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast school, learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:31] And today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why there isn't a magic amount of money. That's enough to solve your problems. I share why we always think we don't make enough. And I also share why contentment leads to really having more success.
[00:01:49] Yeah. As we talk about stewarding your treasures, wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime. It turns out you [00:02:00] can. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show.
[00:02:12] If you enjoy the show, when you're ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. So one of those questions that I've been asked, maybe not in exactly the way I'm going to ask it now, but it's really, what question is being asked is how much money is enough money to be making or to have in the bank so that I no longer have to worry about money.
[00:02:36]We always are after security. You hear people that are looking for freedom and financial security and financial independence. And you'll hear the people talk about financial independence as when you have enough money in investments or other sorts of income streams that make more money than you do in your quote day job.
[00:02:58] But the truth is that even [00:03:00] that though it does give you the ability to make some choices that you wouldn't have been able to make without that situation. It's suddenly not the magic amount of money that you thought it was going to be. I've seen people get to that point and then be disappointed and think.
[00:03:15]Now what's next? I don't feel the emotion that I thought I was going to feel because they were after a money target. Instead of actually after the emotional target, I've had a client that made over $250,000 gross a month, not a year, but a month. And they brought home in excess of a hundred thousand dollars a month.
[00:03:41] That means they were earning. Over a million dollars a year. Over it. And the truth is they still had decisions and choices and challenges when it came to money, because money is tied up to more than just numbers on a page. There's an emotional [00:04:00] context to it. There's feelings around money, there's decisions about values and there's decisions about making decisions and choices of.
[00:04:10] What is it that I want to do? What do I want to focus on? What do I want to pay attention to, by the way that individual worked very hard. For that income, they didn't just sit back and eat bond bonds. And they did a lot of really good things. They didn't just take all the money and buy Jetson islands and this sort of things.
[00:04:31] They were doing a lot to invest for the future. They were starting foundations, they were giving to charity. So it's not like they were an evil person or the money had somehow corrupted them or anything like that either to be clear. But the money didn't solve all of the problems they had. That's one of the reasons I was working with them as a coach, because they actually came in saying I make so much money that I just assumed it would solve all of my problems.
[00:04:57] But then I've discovered that I still have [00:05:00] challenges. I still have choices. I still have things that I'm not sure how to do. And that's why he wanted to work with me. And we worked together for quite a while. The truth is no matter how much you make. We often think that we just don't make enough.
[00:05:14] If I just made a little bit more, all of my problems would go away. I'm making 50. And if I just made 70, it would be so much easier. I'm making 70 and I just made a hundred. It would be so much easier or I'm making a hundred. And if I just made 150, it would be so much easier. And the truth is no matter how much you make.
[00:05:34] There's always that next level. And what's funny is we always look around and we compare ourselves to the people that are closest to us. And if we're doing better than them, we feel pretty good about it. But if there's anyone who's doing a little better than us than a lot of times, we're challenged by that and feel like if I could just make a little bit more than suddenly.
[00:05:58] I would be able to [00:06:00] do what they do and my problems would go away. And the funny thing is, by the way, oftentimes we're measuring that based on what we can see as opposed to what's real. It's our perception of how other people are doing that matters, not how they're actually doing the truth is we usually don't know how they're actually doing.
[00:06:20] They may be having the exact same challenges as us, but we don't perceive it. We don't see it. We don't understand it. We don't feel it. And therefore, we assume we're not doing well. They're doing better. And we have to. Do better still to be able to compete, to be able to measure up, to be able to fit into the tribe.
[00:06:44] But the truth is a feeling of contentment is often the cure for this, a feeling of recognizing that, even though you could have more, and even though you could have less. If your needs are taken care of, if your priorities are [00:07:00] met, if the things that are the most important to you are getting handled and done.
[00:07:05] If you're able to spend time with the people that are important to you, if you're able to spend effort and do things that are valuable and give you autonomy and give you power, then all of a sudden. You can feel better if you've got security and safety and a roof over your head, then you're probably doing okay.
[00:07:27] And recognizing that yes, you can work harder and yes, you can do more. And those are good things, but that at the end of the day, you're still content with what you have. You're still okay with where you are. You're not challenged by it. You're not looking at how other people are doing and comparing yourself to them.
[00:07:48] You're just. Looking at yourself. And what are your priorities and what are your values? And you're stepping out on that yourself, when that happens, [00:08:00] that feeling of contentment, then all of a sudden you stop chasing the magic amount of money and you begin looking instead at what is it that I really want?
[00:08:10] What emotionally fulfilled fulfills me. What's the why behind the money? Why do I even care? If I have a million dollars in the bank, what is it that I'm really after? What's really important to me. And then you can focus your time and your energy on those things. And the money strangely often comes in that situation suddenly because you're not chasing it because you're not straining after it because you're not worried about it.
[00:08:44] Things get easier in a way. That's what I've seen time after time. So stop chasing the magic number. Stop chasing the amount of money that you think will buy you freedom and just start looking for [00:09:00] freedom instead. And strangely you can find it quicker than you ever thought possible. Thanks for listening.
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