"I have enough": Words that beat any net worth
Last Update Date: 05-10-2026
Published by freefincal
Abhishek Kumar's role: Wrote this article
Abhishek Kumar wrote this guest post on contentment and money, arguing that wealth is a tool for freedom and that knowing when you have enough matters more than any checklist.
What Abhishek Kumar said
What does it mean to have 'enough' money?
It means having decided where your own finish line is. Most of us chase more without ever defining enough, and someone with no sense of when they have reached it can sit on real wealth and still feel short of it. A great deal of financial anxiety is not about the state of our finances at all; it is the gap between where we are and where we assumed we would be by now, measured against a checklist and a timeline other people wrote. Wealth is a tool for freedom and choices. Peace is the point.
Is being debt-free more important than owning assets?
In my experience, usually yes. I have met high earners with two car loans, a stretched home loan and rolling card balances who look successful on paper and are one bad month from panic, and people earning far less who sleep soundly because they owe nothing to anyone. An asset you do not yet own, with a monthly obligation attached, is a liability in nicer clothes. Modest assets and no debt give you something the leveraged earner lacks: options, and undisturbed sleep.
How do I stop comparing my finances with other people's?
When a money worry threatens to consume your week, I ask one question first: will this still matter a year from now? Usually the honest answer is no. Much of what remains is comparison, with the neighbour's car, a friend's property, a colleague's new phone, and comparison is a treadmill with no end, since someone will always have more. Even a very wealthy person falls behind when markets dip. The calmest people I meet about money are rarely the richest; they have simply stopped running someone else's race.
Is renting really throwing money away, and must I buy a house by a certain age?
I do not think so, on either count. Owning a home can be a fine goal and a real source of stability, but it has quietly turned from a personal choice into a moral deadline. Renting gives you mobility and a lighter monthly outgo while you accumulate what is needed to buy a home properly, at a time of your choosing. What drains people is a home whose EMI swallows the salary and kills the ability to invest. The same goes for the car, the wedding, the upgrade: do them when the numbers work and they bring joy, not because a clock says you are late.
In our words, from what he said in the piece. General information, not personal advice.
More of Abhishek's views on money management
A personal essay on defining 'enough' rather than chasing ever-higher net worth. It argues that much money anxiety comes from comparison and borrowed milestones, and points to three habits of people at ease with money: staying out of bad debt, ignoring comparisons, and not forcing costly milestones such as an unaffordable home.
Publisher source
"I have enough": Words that beat any net worth