When and how money matters

Hard part isn’t hitting a number, it’s deciding what the number is for.

- Matthew Matthee

How much money is enough? It's one of those questions that comes up all the time. With clients. With friends. In your own head, some days. And depending on who you ask, you'll get very different answers.

I recently read Brian Portnoy's book The Geometry of Wealth. It's about how to shape a life of money and meaning.

It left me thinking deeply about how we relate to money and what it's actually for.

These are some of the insights that stuck with me.

Step one: eliminate misery
Start with Maslow's hierarchy of needs—food, shelter and safety. Money plays a critical role here. If you can't cover the basics, life is incredibly hard.

In this context, money does buy happiness—or at least it buys the absence of misery.

This is where money is most powerful. It helps you get out of crisis, gives you breathing space and gets you off the back foot.

But it doesn't stop there
Once your basic needs are covered, the impact of each extra rand starts to taper off.