The opposite of scarcity is enough
The opposite of scarcity is enough.
Not abundance.
In retirement, it is okay to be enough, and it is okay to have enough.
Enough is the goal in retirement rather than abundance.
Scarcity in Retirement
Of the major retirement fears, the scarcity mindset is common. For those who have oversaved, it is hard to start spending money after a lifetime of saving.
If you cannot spend the money you specifically set aside to have a fulfilling retirement, then even a cup of coffee comes with a price tag to your soul. You lack fulfillment if you are anxious about spending or doing minor things.
Get Rich Quick and Real Estate gurus tell you the opposite of a “scarcity mindset” is an “abundance mindset.” Abundance is just as dangerous as scarcity in retirement.
Because when your goal is abundance, when do you ever know if you have enough?
Abundance Mindset Vs. Enough Mindset
Is the opposite of scarcity abundance? If that is the case, be prepared for a painful retirement.
Scarce is “deficient in quantity or number compared to demand” and comes from the Latin excerptus “to gather or pluck.” Getting pedantic, this combines ex “out of, from” and carpo “pick, harvest.” When put together, you get scarce from this year’s harvest.
While it pays to have some extra harvest this year to set aside for the future, it will rot on the vine if you have an abundance of harvest. If you are plucking grapes, that is. And if you have more chickens than you can pluck, you wind up with avian influenza.
If scarcity is less than your optimal need, should not more than your optimal need be the opposite? Not if it rots or accumulates as chicken crap because you cannot harvest it.
So, the abundance mindset leads down the path of “too much” rather than enough. The Enough Mindset is what you need in retirement.
The Enough Mindset in Retirement
In retirement, scarcity is the enemy because it causes life to be unlived.
If money measures potential time or saving time, then scarcity must be avoided because it means a lack of money and a lack of life and time.
Money lets you do other things besides work to provide basics: food, shelter, etc. You can pay someone to do those things for you (get food for you, build you a house, pay utilities) and instead focus your time on fulfillment, which brings happiness and a vital retirement.
If you view money as scarce, you cannot use it to buy freedom. Instead of freedom, every purchase becomes anxiety, a chain around your neck that weighs you deep into an early grave. The scarcity mindset needs to be overcome, for when the paycheck stops, we freeze and panic when the nest egg tumbles down instead of compounding nicely.
I don’t care how rich you are; everyone feels empty when their “number” starts to shrink. This can cause fear and panic as you stop using money for its intended purpose: to buy time and do that which brings joy and pleasure.
If you cannot buy more time, you cannot buy more happiness. But, you can buy enough happiness.
For both money and time in retirement, have an “enough mindset.”
Why You Don’t Need Abundance in Retirement
Why would you rather have enough than an abundance in retirement? Enough self-esteem or an abundance of self-esteem? It is a slippery slope needing external gratification rather than internal fulfillment.
In a world where “everyone is above average,” you should have enough and an abundance of self-esteem—but not too much. And that is the problem: no one knows where you cross the line from abundant to too much self-esteem, but we know it when we see it.
When do you cross the line from an abundance to too much money?
If the goal is not to suffer from the scarcity mindset, you don’t need more money to roll around in piles of it; You can be enough by having enough.
Just like it is fine to be good enough (rather than too good), or smart enough (rather than too smart for one’s good), or attractive enough (rather than too attractive—yuck, who wants to be that?), or even perfect enough. Most doctors know what too perfect is—your boss feels that way about himself—what kind of taste does that leave in your mouth?
Instead, if you have enough money, you can put yourself out there and face the uncertainties in retirement. After all, after you have the basics covered, all you need to do is cover the common risks you face in retirement. Beyond that, it is all gravy anyway.
Comparison and Enough in Retirement
Retirement is not a race. It is not a competition. Inside or outside the retirement community, everyone has the same eventual outcome.
We can’t take it with us. You cannot spend your way to happiness by spending more than your neighbor.
Comparing your nest egg to your neighbors’ is like comparing your marriage or family values to theirs. Why stop with your neighbors when you can compare yourself to social media perfection?
In retirement, you will never be rich or good-looking enough if you compare yourself to others and don’t know what enough is. You cannot be rich enough because someone always has more zeros after their name.
More money will never solve the scarcity mindset. Instead, have abundance. Have enough. Be enough.
An “enough mindset” makes a happy retirement.
“I think abundance and scarcity are two sides of the same coin” ~Brene Brown
The Enough Mindset in Retirement
An abundance mindset is better than nothing but does not combat scarcity. It doesn’t work in retirement. Instead, cultivate the enough mindset.
When you have enough, retirement is just sweeter. You might never be happy (or rich) enough if you seek abundance. It is okay to be enough, and it is okay to have enough.
The opposite of scarcity is enough.