Ask a professional family how they’re doing financially and you will almost always hear a number: the portfolio balance, the net worth, the account total. The number is a basket — a store of value meant to be filled during the working years and emptied, carefully, during the rest.
The basket has three problems.
First, it converts market noise into personal anxiety. When your family’s security is a number, every fluctuation in that number is a fluctuation in your security — or feels like one, which for decision-making purposes is the same thing.
Second, the basket only answers the question how much, never the question when can I stop. A basket of