No, I'm seriously asking.

I'd love to hear from you at the end of this email if you have an answer. :)

Heath here, it's been a few weeks since we've last sent an email.

Our past two months have had us gallivanting around the world. We crossed off a major bucket list item in campervanning across Japan as well as bringing our kids to one of our all time favorite locations — New Zealand.

In today's email I wanted to just pose a question I've been thinking about. But before getting to that question, I wanted to share a couple updates from our website & Youtube:

New article on Heath & Alyssa — Month #5 acquisition update: The month we did nothing.​

If you've been following along, we bought a new business in December and have documented the ups & downs. This month's recap is short & sweet because we didn't touch the business as we were traveling.

​Here's how it fared. ​

New Youtube video: Visiting a historic 7th century post town in Japan. ​

This was one of our favorite places we visited in Japan and the food was sublime!

Check out the video:

Okay, on to today's email.

---

My question of the day: What would you do if money wasn't a factor?

Why I'm asking:

I think this is one of the most important questions we can navigate in life. Hopefully we answer it when we're still in a position to do something about the results (while we have our health and energy).

It's important because money tends to be an objective, until it's a distraction.

Culturally, for most of our lives we chase after a certain amount until we can retire, only to then be able to live the life we want. But the question is, what do you want to do?

Some people know exactly what they want to do when money is no longer a factor. My dad is one of them.

His goal was to retire so he could golf, fish and spend time with his grandkids & family.

As of two years ago, he is doing exactly that. I couldn't be happier for him.

But it's not always such a black and white answer.

I, for one, struggle to answer this question.

I can give you an answer that I hope is somewhat true: I'd spend lots of time traveling with my kids, creating memories together and engage in work I love and believe in.

And yet, as someone who recently sold a company (and then another business and then a campground property), I don't frame up my goals around what I said above.

I still think in terms of our cash flow and increasing net worth. In part, this is because we aren't in a place where we never have to work again. But we are in a place where we shouldn't be basing all decisions around money.

Several studies document at what point money has a diminishing return in our lives. For many people, once they make $75K/year there is a steep decline in the happiness that money provides. Up until that point, we're very excited with each raise or cash increase. Then the happiness level goes down. More dollars does not equate to more happiness.

While some might argue the exact dollar amount, there is one thing I've noticed to be true among many people. If you ask them how much they need to be happy, it's often met with a four letter word, "more".

Yet, this is in direct contrast with what we know to be true about money.

If you have $50,000 in savings, you want $100K. If you have $1M, you want $2M. Sometimes there is logic tied to the additional increase. Like I want to live on a boat and it will cost me "x" amount so in order to have that life I need this much monthly income.

Sure, I get it.

However, I believe this thinking is a trap.

The target moves with us and it doesn't stop. Once you hit a certain level (whatever that level is for you to live the life you want), pursuit of more can become a distraction.

At one point it was a goal, but then it just became a pursuit of more because we didn't know how else to spend our time.

This isn't true for all people, but I see it in others and myself.

To me, the goal is in actually knowing what you want and being brave enough to ditch the word more and replace it with enough.

To sum up this email and hopefully make it more than my rambling, here's the question I wanted to pose today:

If money wasn't a factor, how would you spend your time?

What could your days look like? Imagine them by each hour.

Who would you want to be around?

In what ways could you give back or help people (if this is what you want to do)?

What hobbies do you miss doing because you "don't have the time"?

If you want to dive further into this, here's some additional questions I would ask:

• How much money do you need to live that best life?
• Once you achieve the financial number or income you set out for, would you be able to say that's enough and live the life you want?

Send me your thoughts. This has (obviously) been on my mind and I'd love to hear your answers.

—Heath (& Alyssa)

PS I know this was a divergence from the types of emails we regularly send. It's just been something on my heart for a bit and I wanted to share.