Welcome to The Stoic Ledger, a daily money meditation from one of the Stoic sages.

49/365: Epictetus on curbing desire

A central theme in Stoic philosophy, as it applies to wealth, is desire management.

Epictetus reminds us to control our gaps of contentment. Desire is a gap between the essential and the unessential. And as long as these gaps of contentment exist, we will go along pursuing possessions, discontent with what we have.

Who has the wealthy life: The one that earns $500,000 a year and desires to live the $600,000 life, or the one that earns $100,000 per year and lives content with the $50,000 life?

No matter the top line figure, desire wedges a gap that only the ephemeral attainment of more can ever pretend to fill.