We’ve all heard the phrase “Money doesn’t buy happiness”.
And that’s true. But it doesn’t buy anything else other than “stuff” – the physical knick-knacks, personal property, and material things that accumulate in our lives. Let’s not forget the other definition of stuff means “to pack tightly”.
Money does not buy happiness, a healthy body (unless you have access to great health care), a smile, or love. Money can’t buy a positive outlook on life (or a negative one for that matter), more time in the day, personal excellence or good friends and neighbors.
Two recent events have brought this point home to me.
After my mother passed in August, my sisters and I have been tasked with cleaning out her house. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling poking through her closets and drawers, deciding what to keep, pass on, discard and donate. It’s taken all the “stuff” that was in her life, and reduced it to mostly meaningless items.
What is important – the memories we have from pictures, and those in our heads and hearts. The old set of Flinch cards, old quilts from the family farm (torn or stained as they may be), a ledger listing how much was spent on the vet or grain. Mostly meaningless items, which would have no value to anyone else but us. The rest of the house was, well, stuffed with “stuff”. And although these items may have been precious to my mother, we’ve found that, in reality, they are worth very little real money.
My second life experience is moving from NJ to the NY homestead permanently. Soon Fox Pines Homestead will be my only address, rather than a weekend and vacation retreat. We’ve lived in our house 25 years, built a barn here, a garden shed, and acquired so much more “stuff” than I thought possible. And even though we have a 2 car garage, a barn and a garden shed at Fox Pines, we’ve already accumulated enough items to fill them over the last dozen years, let alone move house with all our other stuff to fit in. Therefore, a lot of cleaning, selling, donating and giving away are happening. And we are by no means hoarders – in fact some would say our normal state is pretty lean, since neither of us like clutter.
It’s made me wonder how much more money I might have had in the IRA’s and savings if we hadn’t bought so much stuff. And how much money was spent on the items I am now discarding.
Haven’t you ever had buyer’s regret? A purchased you wanted so badly but 2 weeks later sits unused in a closet. My vices include kitchen cookware, and leather bags. Seems like I never have enough, until I realized some things I havne’t used in years.
So I think I have now learned this lesson – money only buys STUFF. it doesn’t buy a beautiful autumn day or the view of a sunset. It can’t make me a better person inside, or make me smarter. Only life’s lessons do that.
And gosh, I’ve got that Amazon order coming tomorrow…. I will need more practice with the attitude and new vision.