3% Rule

3% Rule sounds like something a clerk would stamp on a file. In truth it is a small instrument for thinking clearly.

The wisdom here is arithmetic, not poetry. Small inputs, repeated honestly, beat grand declarations made once a year. The figure is only there to keep you from negotiating with yourself.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Consider the railway porter who has carried ten thousand suitcases. He knows what nobody packs: a plan for what happens after arrival.

In the end, life asks only whether we were awake while it happened. Do not memorise it. Notice it. Noticing is the senior discipline.