As a legitimate human being on this planet, I think many of us have been in a situation where we are suffering from a "One More..." syndrome.
Take a drug victim for example, he may be so addicted to the drug that even when he promises that this will be his last use, he will never comply to it and uses it again the next time.
Similarly for us, we may be guilty of such syndrome at times, even myself admittedly.
Take the example for myself 3 years ago, I promised at that time that the next job will be my last and I would be comfortable with a $5k/month salary that would meet the needs of my financial freedom. I took it for granted, get used to it and perhaps realised that I've got more responsibility to care for than I originally had planned and suddenly I was awaiting for the next higher paying job. Maybe I was suffering from the "One More..." syndrome and I know many people too did.
I had devised myself a 10 year roadmap plan to financial freedom and I've 6 years left to go for before I turned 35. If everything goes to plan, I'll probably have around $1.5m yielding me about $90k/year, which is an equivalent to about $7.7k/month. By our current spending pattern, the amount should be more than enough for our family to live comfortably. What I am worried is I do not know if by then my "One More..." syndrome will kick start another roadmap plan for me. If so, this is a mental block, more than anything else.
There are a couple of reasons that might relate to why many people are having this "One More..." syndrome. The most obvious reason is greedy. Humans tend to be greedy in nature and especially in the society we live in, it is almost inevitable that we look across our neighbours to compare and see how each other is doing. For a more conservative reasoning, we could perhaps look at how people tend to perceive a higher margin of safety net which enable them to be more comfortable. Take for example, if I decide to work for an extra year until the age of 36, it would give me an additional 6-figure sum which would placed me at an even better stead. But the million dollar question remains, how much enough is enough?
Overcoming The Syndrome
Overcoming the syndrome is not the easiest thing to do and as much as we tell ourselves this can be done, many people still failed to do so. Here, we look at how we can potentially overcome this syndrome:
1.) Get the mental block out of the way
Almost everything we do starts from the mental and getting the mental block out of the way is one of the foremost important reason we need to convince ourselves before we can start overcoming this syndrome.
2.) Think of the upside
Many times, when we forego a certain situation, we tend to think more about the opportunity cost rather than the upside benefit to it. For example, if someone foregoes another year of working, the first thing that came up to their mind would be the opportunity loss of their active income for that one year. But they failed to see the upside. Think more of the upside of how you can potentially use the time you spent on working your ass off in the office to spending more time with family and friends. Remember, time is irreversible, what is gone is gone and you are always ticking closer to death as each second past.
3.) Stress test your expenses
If you are worried that the money you have will not last you a lifetime, perhaps a good thing to do is to stress test your expenses while you are still working. Test yourself in a situation where you do not draw out your active income and instead you will only use other passive income as a means to support your monthly expenses. If that works well for you, then hoola... you are ready for financial freedom.
Remember, happiness is a given and everyone in this earth can make it happen.
There will be a positive correlation for level of happiness against income but to certain point, a gradual increase in income does not lead to a corresponding gradual increase in happiness. This shows that even if one day you become a billionaire or trillionaire, nothing else will change. It is what you do that makes the situation around you and life even more special. To end off, I would like to show a simple story that might have been shared before:
The Mexican replied, "only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?"
The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions.. Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
The moral of the story -- Know where you’re going in life — you may already be there.
