75 | A Deadly Combination

A common experience with our money is that our cash on hand (blue), real estate (yellow), and investments (gray) at some point can get to a level that feels like "a lot".

Of course, "a lot" is about as subjective as anything can be in finances.

Compared to $200, some people feel like $2,000 counts as "a lot". For others, $20,000 feels like "a lot" and for others it might take $200,000 or $2,000,000 to hit "a lot".

Your bank account grows to a size that surpasses the largest expense you've ever had and it feels like "a lot".

A home appreciates over a decade or two and it feels like "a lot".

Investment return in a single year is comparable to a few months worth of paychecks and it feels like "a lot".

No matter your definition, it's easy for "a lot" to feel like a good finish line and an opportunity to treat yourself, but this is where it starts to get tricky.

Without the context of our expectations, "a lot" isn’t always what it seems, and modest growth can disguise and even fuel unsustainable expectations.

Our expectations are no better represented than by our spending (red) and they have a way of growing without us even realizing it.

There is always something else that we could get or do.

Once we have something, it's never quite as satisfying as we expected it to be.

Things tend to get more expensive over time.

And the reality is that expectation’s natural state of being tends to be one of growth rather than decay.

The challenge here is that our expectations continue to grow, while our ability to support those growing expectations levels out at "a lot" - a deadly combination.

Truth be told, “a lot” is only a feeling unless it’s tethered to expectations.