How much is enough, really?

Financial parity is the precise moment your assets earn as much as you spend. Your money keeps pace with your lifestyle. From that day forward, work is optional. Not 'rich'. Not 'retired'. Free.

Most apps ask 'how much do you want to have?'. myEnough flips the question: 'how much do you need to spend to live well?' — then works the number out from there.

In 1998, three Trinity University professors studied 70 years of market data and found something remarkable: withdraw 4% from a diversified portfolio each year and it lasts 30+ years in 95% of historical scenarios. That's the Safe Withdrawal Rate.

Yes: seven hundred and fifty thousand. Not a million. Not ten. The calculator tunes this rate to your risk tolerance, expected inflation and returns — but the principle holds.

Einstein supposedly called it 'the eighth wonder of the world'. Probably not Einstein — but the point stands. Someone investing $500/mo from age 25 to 65 at 7% real returns ends with ~$1.2M. Start at 35 and you end with ~$566K. The difference: one decade.

Moral: your most valuable asset isn't money. It's time. Every year you wait is fuel pulled from the engine.

Every recurring expense you add to your life doesn't cost what it costs. It costs 25 times more. Why? Because to sustain it forever, you need 25x that expense invested (the inverse of 4%).

This isn't to guilt you about coffee. It's so you see every spending decision is also a time decision: how many extra months you'll have to work.

Brickman & Campbell (1971) called it the 'hedonic treadmill': we adapt to almost any income level within 6-18 months. Last year's raise already feels normal. That's why defining 'enough' explicitly — and in writing — is radical.

A 2023 Killingsworth study updated Kahneman's famous figure: emotional well-being keeps rising with income, but the curve flattens hard above ~$100K for most people. Beyond that, each extra dollar buys very little happiness.

• Your 'enough' is a number, not a feeling. Once you write it down, it stops moving every time you scroll Instagram.
• Your savings rate (not your salary) decides how far you are. Save 50% and the path shrinks to ~17 years. Save 10% and it stretches to 51.
• Defining 'enough' isn't giving up on dreams. It's choosing which dreams are worth your time.