The Easy Way to Appreciate What You Already Have
This is Part 4 of my Involved Living Series where I am talking about our journey to financial independence. You can see all posts in the series here. I recommend starting at the beginning if you are stopping by for the first time to give you all of the background on why I’m sharing this and how we plan to achieve this goal.
Once I started really understanding how little the material things in my life made me happy and then prioritizing a few things that actually do, at some point along the way I developed an appreciation for my old things that I never had before. I have a natural tendency to constantly want to be improving things, which is great in some areas, such as saving, but not so great when it comes to things like upgrading simply because there is a better version now.
Lately this tendency to constantly be looking at my stuff and wishing for better things has dwindled significantly. I’m not perfect – I still have those thoughts from time to time, but it is not nearly as often or nearly as strong of a want.
This was a happy side effect of asking the very important question and prioritizing things, and I came to realize that I have an absolute glut of stuff, and that most of my stuff is an incredible luxury – stuff that I used to really want to replace or upgrade. This is stuff that I never thought of as a luxury before, but for many outside of the US, most of my things would be an incredible luxury.
The easy way I’ve found to appreciate what I already have is simply to change my outlook on it. Instead of seeing my normal everyday stuff as just…normal everyday stuff…I view it all as a luxury.
For example, my 13 year old, 160,000 mile Honda went from an old, dinged up, OMG-I-can’t-believe-I-still-drive-my-college-car, to being this paid for, fuel efficient machine that can have me to the grocery up the street in 4 minutes flat. We have a shiny newer Toyota that we got when our other car died, and it hasn’t managed to get me to the store any faster.
I’m using my car as an example here, because it’s old, it’s achieved borderline beater status, and since most people in the US have cars, simply owning one probably isn’t thought of as a luxury, and especially an old car like this.
I’ve started thinking of having a car at all is a major luxury, and one I like to remind myself of frequently when that rattling panel by back seat starts acting up. That rattle drives me a bit crazy. The thing is, there are many countries where hardly anybody drives, or the infrastructure is so bad you may not even want to. People in many countries might be very happy to have my rattling Honda that has a transmission and engine that still run like new.
When it comes down to it, my old Honda is hardly any different than my new Toyota. It might be a little less pretty, and it might have a little bit bumpier ride with an extra rattle here and there, but otherwise it basically does the exact same thing – getting me from A to B quickly.
Another example is our house. When I look at our little house, there have been many times I have wished for a bigger house. That feeling has gone away for the most part. For one thing, there are many benefits to having a smaller home such as lower taxes, lower energy bills, and lower cost to furnish. When I step back and think about it, I’m so lucky and fortunate to have any home, since there are many people around the world who don’t have that luxury, and this home more than meets our needs.
We really have no need for a bigger home. Sure, it would be nice to have a dedicated office space for me, but then that would mean my dining room would sit unused for 99% of the time.
It would be nice to have a space to set up a home gym, but it wouldn’t give me any better workouts. I mean, it’s easy to tell myself I’d use it more, since it would be a nicer space in theory, but we all know how workout motivation sounds better in our heads like that. The reality is that my internal motivation is what makes a workout happen, not the space.
It would be nice to have a basement for more storage, but I don’t really need a basement to store more stuff, since I tend to think it is better to just get rid of stuff I don’t use. I really don’t need my home to become a giant expensive storage unit, so the smaller space forces me to keep this from happening.
What this home does offer is a space that is more than big enough for us. We have a kitchen that I adore , more bathrooms than people (including an newly renovated one), and plenty of room for us to live comfortably. Our rooms may need to be multi-functional, and the furniture might be a little bit tighter of a squeeze, but I have the luxury of having a heated and air conditioned home on a great lot in a great location. I can enjoy nice days on our patio and cold nights curled up near our fireplace. When I look at all of this luxury already surrounding me, it’s a lot easier to ignore the homes that are quite literally twice the size of ours that surround us in our neighborhood. I look around now and see myself in a 1600 square foot luxury.
I’m not saying we won’t ever buy a new home with more space, but we will likely only do it if it makes sense financially. Looking at our current home as a luxury keeps us from doing this needlessly. We are always keeping an eye on our local housing market for deals, so if a great deal came up on a bigger home, we might still jump on it.
This method of looking at normal stuff as a luxury has not only changed how I look at the big things, but smaller purchases as well.
Now when I look at my work clothes that I have worn a million times (but are still in great condition), or I look at my gym shorts that I have worn even more times than that, I think of how glad and appreciative I am that I can still get more use out of them. It’s a luxury that I was able to buy these nice quality things in the first place that last me so long. I don’t need to spend money yet to replace them. It forces me to evaluate why I want new stuff, and then I realize a new version won’t make me any happier. I try and do this with little home and clothing wants, because those little purchases really do add up to huge savings over time. I still do get things occasionally, but not nearly as much as before.
This luxury viewpoint has been key for me on this journey, because it compliments the idea of not buying things that don’t truly make me any happier that I talked about in Part 2 and the avoiding deprivation by prioritizing I talked about in Part 3. By looking at normal, everyday things as luxuries, I need even less to truly make me happy, and I feel even less deprived when I already appreciate all that I do have.
Next up in the series I’ll be talking about how DIY is a key part of all of this. It’s the last post in the series, but I’ll probably still post more on this topic. I’ve really enjoyed sharing this and hearing your thoughts and comments!
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