When Is It 'Enough'?

Enough.

That's the title of Vanguard founder John Bogle's book about measuring what counts in life -- and the title comes from one of the best anecdotes in American letters.

As Bogle tells it, Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were at a party hosted by a billionaire hedge fund manager. Vonnegut pointed out that their host had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from Catch-22 in its entire history. Heller reportedly replied: "Yes, but I have something he will never have -- enough."

The story landed in March 2011 with particular force. That was the month Rajat Gupta -- former head of McKinsey, board member of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble, a man worth many millions -- was facing insider-trading charges for allegedly passing tips to a hedge fund manager. Whatever the courts would decide, the question hung over the case like smoke: what was missing from a life that had everything, that inside information was supposed to supply?

"When rich people do stupid things" is usually a story about greed. But the Heller anecdote suggests it's really a story about a missing concept. Most financial scandals aren't committed by people who need money. They're committed by people who never defined "enough" -- for whom the number was always more, because no one had ever asked them to name the point at which they'd stop.

Heller's answer is the whole of personal finance in one sentence. Not the budgeting, not the asset allocation -- the prior question: how much is enough? Answer it honestly, and the rest is mechanics. Never answer it, and no amount of money will save you from wanting the next amount.