January 26

Day 26/365: Seneca on essential and enough

Author

Logan
January 26, 2025

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

26/365: Seneca on essential and enough

“What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man’s safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another’s and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already. You ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.” – Seneca

What’s the proper limit of wealth? 

Seneca said it’s two things:

  1. The ability to cover basic necessities, the essentials

  2. Knowing that you have enough

Beyond the essential, we step into the realm of status and comfort, a spectrum that slides to the degree of our desire. This morning, pencil in the amount—enough—what is it for you?

Then ask yourself these two questions: How long will it take to get there and how can I be so sure that “there” won’t change upon arrival?

Kurt Vonnegut honored his late friend and fellow novelist, Joseph Heller, with a poem in the New Yorker aptly titled “Joe Heller.” Vonnegut’s words below:

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, ‘“Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel Catch-22 has earned in its entire history?” And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.” And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?” And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”

So, how much more?

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