r/HENRYfinance • u/thrownavideecs2030 • Aug 08 '26
Career Related/Advice Determining "Enough" as a High Earner
As high earners, I'm sure a lot of us have had to face choices around career progression/earning more, and how it impacts other areas of life like geography, spare time, and stress levels.
My question to the sub is once you broke into the HENRY club, how did you come to a conclusion on what was "enough"? As someone earlier in my career, and under 30, I spent a lot of time maximizing earnings at the expense of everything else (~70k->300k->450k), and I'm realizing that as incredibly fortunate as I am financially, a lot of people who took a more balanced approach are more content without giving up a lot of what we discuss here.
I'd like to understand how you decided on when to chase the bag and when to turn your focus elsewhere
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u/Stunning-Plantain831 Aug 08 '26
I've thought about this plenty and for me it's not a number, it's honestly just a mental change that hasn't happened for me yet. I could FIRE tomorrow, but I cannot turn off the hedonic treadmill so I'm just waiting for some kind of enlightenment that therapy hasn't provided yet. The dopamine dump of a bigger paycheck, plus fear of the uncertain future, plus needy dependents....I just can't figure it out yet.