RealLife Lessons

Finance

Keep enough set aside that a bad month is an inconvenience and not an emergency.

Nobody tells you that money stops being about money somewhere around the point you have enough. After that it is entirely about sleep. I have been broke and I have been comfortable, and the difference in my happiness was almost nothing. The difference in my sleep was everything. So I stopped optimising for return and started optimising for the ability to stop thinking about it.

Keep enough set aside that a bad month is an inconvenience and not an emergency. That is what wealth actually buys.

Accountant, 26 years \u00b7 Manchester

Late career · Generation X

A sample lesson, written for the launch of RealLife Lessons. Members' own lessons take its place as people choose to share them.

Somebody is waiting for what you learned.