How Much Wealth Do You ACTUALLY Need to Feel Secure?

77% of Americans earning over $200,000 a year still don't feel financially secure. The goalpost keeps moving — and if you're a founder, you're probably chasing a number you've never actually defined. This video gives you the framework to calculate what "enough" really looks like. 📅 Schedule a call with our team: Link in Bio! Ask someone with $500K–$1M what they need to retire comfortably and they'll say $2.8 million. Ask someone with $1M–$10M and they'll say $5.3 million. The number always grows just out of reach — and that's not a math problem, it's a psychological one. Most founders make it worse by confusing business value with personal security. A $5 million company valuation isn't liquid wealth. You can't pay for groceries with equity, and if that valuation drops, the retirement cushion you thought you had disappears with it. In this video, you'll learn: Why hedonic adaptation keeps your "enough" number permanently out of reach — and how childhood financial experiences and trauma make it even harder to define How to separate your emotional number (what makes you feel safe) from your mathematical number (what you actually need) — and why the gap between those two is where most of your financial stress lives The three-component framework for calculating your real number: lifestyle, legacy, and buffer The critical difference between "work optional" and "never need to build again" — two very different freedom numbers that change how you think about your career Why founders consistently overestimate business value, underestimate taxes on exit, and live one lifestyle level above what their actual liquidity supports How to stress-test your number against a market crash in year one of retirement, living to 100, long-term care costs exceeding $100K per year, and unexpected family support needs This video is for founders, business owners, and high-income professionals who've been accumulating wealth without ever defining what the finish line looks like. If you've never sat down and calculated your actual number using real spending data — not what your anxiety tells you and not what keeps moving — this framework will change how you think about every financial decision you make. About: Chris Girbes is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and co-founder of Five Oceans, a fee-only financial planning firm serving founders and entrepreneurs.