BMW X6
Yesterday, someone parked a year’s worth of dental school (in the form of a BMW X6 outside our home. As I admired the dramatic curves of the car, it felt freeing not to want one. Now, before you start thinking I’m trying to be all high and mighty anti-buying-stuff, hear me out! This isn’t some moral triumph of mine over material goods. In fact, I understand I’ll certainly need a car when I begin working in a few years. Indeed, my thoughts about this are more practical.
Some people argue against Buying Stuff because you have to organize, dust, maintain, and categorize all of it. Me, the weirdo that I am, like organizing, maintaining, and categorizing. So it’s not that. It’s the Worry Factor. Bigger house — you get security system. Nice car — you buy more expensive insurance and have trouble driving in not so nice parts of town. You worry about hail so you get a garage. You worry about the paint so you wash it all the time. Lake cabin — you worry about severe weather coming through when you aren’t there. You buy a boat because, well, if you’re on a lake you need a boat. Then you worry about where to winter the boat. And then you buy another new car with the towing capacity for the boat. Then you insure the boat so when you’re towing it around you won’t worry. Jet skis would be fun. Now, you need a bigger garage. So, you find a bigger house with more garage space. It’s a vicious cycle!
Finding a place for all your stuff can be a challenge, but protecting all your stuff, protecting your ability to buy more of it by worrying about taxes, income, government — that binds us to stuff. That seems like something to avoid.