It is interesting that while we can all understand and accept our financial situations at any particular time, no one ever seems to have enough. This is because there is only one thing that people really want: and that is to be happy. So what in terms of your lifestyle will make you happy?

This is not a question that most people can answer straightaway, but if you put pen to paper, it’s possible to work out how much it would cost and therefore how much you would need to make it happen. This should not be an exercise of frustration or of limitation. Focus instead on what will make you truly happy.

A story is told of a man who had worked very hard all of this life. Now, he was finally able to purchase the yacht of his dreams and had the time to enjoy it too. Life was good! One day he sailed his beautiful yacht to a secluded cove and dropped anchor. He took out his fishing line, sat back feeling incredibly satisfied and grateful for the gifts he was enjoying. After a few hours, he decided to move his yacht closer to the shore, for he felt it had a better view. As he did so, he spied a man of a similar age to himself, sitting on the rocks with a fishing line in his hand. The man’s clothes looked clean but well worn, but there was a similar look of contentedness that the rich man had just experienced too, and this connected him to the man. Then it dawned on him that this man didn’t need the yacht to experience the contentedness. And it made him wonder: were all the hours of hard work, all of the times he denied himself time to go fishing because he was so busy earning money, worth it? Who between them two, he wondered, had had the richer life?

Decide then on a lifestyle that will make you happy. Include where you will live, how often you take holidays, and the type of car you will drive. Then include the more mundane but necessary things like food, clothes, haircuts, memberships, insurance, Christmas and birthday presents and everything you would like to have in your life. Now work out a total of how much all this costs on a yearly basis. It takes time to do this, but with research on the Internet to see how much things cost it is possible.

Remember that you don’t have to be able to do everything, nor own everything now! Part of this is exercise is to stretch into who you want to become, what you want to do and have in your life. Knowing though how much is enough for you to be happy will stop you from chasing things that are not truly important to you.

Then your efforts and hard work will be focused on achieving a lifestyle of happiness.

(Adapted from www.reddandelion.co.uk)