Something that has always interested me is people’s connection to "stuff". Don’t get me wrong. I have the same issues as everyone else. If I’ve paid money for something, I feel a strange obligation to keep it for as long as I’m breathing. Lately I’ve really been trying to call myself to the carpet when I think I need to keep something indefinitely. What I need to remember is that you really don’t buy anything in life. Everything is pretty much rented. I mean, you can’t take it with you when you die, right?
Exhibit A:
When I was 18 years old I wanted a new home stereo. It couldn’t be just any home stereo either. It had to be LOUD. Looking back, as I’m typing this, I realize that my approach to money has been with me a lot longer than I thought. A frugal person probably would have looked at a new home stereo as a frivolous purchase so I guess I can’t say I was frugal. I can say that, no matter how stupid a purchase I wanted to make, I always made sure I was buying it at the very best possible price. In the case of the stereo it meant a trip to the Bon Marche scratch and dent outlet. I was able to find a very nice Mitsubishi home stereo for about half the price as a comparable new one. That still equated to $500.
Almost 19 years later I finally parted ways with that stereo. I realize now that I should have gotten rid of that stereo years ago. I hadn’t used it in at least 6 years but I still didn’t want to get rid of it because at one time I paid a lot of money for it. Until last weekend I didn’t measure the intangible costs of keeping it. Frankly it was showing it’s age, I wasn’t using it, and it was taking up valuable space in one of our rooms. (If you recall, home stereos from 19 years ago were all about BIG speakers and a large rack of gear). I’m happy to say, it’s gone. I gave it away to a neighbor on Sunday. The deal was, whether he wanted all the components or not, he had to take the whole enchilada if he wanted to take any of it. He took it all and kept 3 pieces total and then took the rest to a second hand store and donated it. It’s really kind of humorous. I found myself touting all the features and benefits of owning that stereo even though it is long past it’s prime. The emotional attachment to that dusty old stereo was quite apparent to anyone that happened to be listening as we hauled it down the street.
Have you found yourself keeping something for no other reason than you spent your hard earned money on it years and years ago?
Update:
Holy smokes. JD at Get Rich Slowly turned me on to this article about getting down to owning just 100 things. And here I was feeling an emotional attachment to a crappy old stereo. Well worth the read.