Have you ever thought about how much money you actually spend each year just buying things? I'm not talking about consumables like toilet paper and soap. These are things that I consider necessary in our lives, maybe not to actually survive, but more to survive in the society we live in today. If you never washed with soap and always smelled of sweat, people would think you were unhygienic and stale. Therefore, I see these purchases as basic for our survival.
The things I'm talking about are all the other things that we don't really need for our survival, but things we buy only because we can and want to. I'm talking shoes (if you haven't used up the last pair), another shirt even though you already have 10 other, new plates just because you like that pattern on them better than the ones you already have. And above all decorative objects that have no other purpose than to stand there on the shelf and look good.
One year I calculated that I spent 7,000 Swedish kronor on hobby materials. At the time, it corresponded to about one month's rent near a big city and, during that time, half a month's income for me. Can be thought a lot or a little for some, but the fact is that this was only in one and the same store and it was about hobby material only. Above that I had all the trinkets I bought, all the clothes, all the shoes. Yes, shoes were my passion and since I worked with shoes at the time, I had many. Closer to 100 pairs to be honest. Some of these I had only bought because they were pretty and like I said would sit on the bookshelf and look pretty because some shoes weren't even made to be worn.
So how is it that so many people spend so much money on unnecessary things at the same time as they have loans at the bank. Is it so funny to spend all your income on unnecessary things and then have to work even harder and even more to chase a higher income to be able to spend even more money on things we don't actually need. And how is it that in today's society people often borrow money to be able to buy these things. Can you really say that you own something that the bank paid for you? And we're not only chasing these things, but we're also chasing larger properties, which we can't really afford because the bank absolutely owns the house as long as you have a loan there.
I once heard a story that went something like this: a man was a fisherman and loved to fish. He fished in the morning and then he sat and took it easy in the afternoon. An American man came up to him and said, why don't you create a whole empire of fishermen, several boats that can fish for you. The man asks why should I do that? The more boats you have the more you will earn. The man asks, why should I make more money than I do today? The American replies, yes, but the more you earn, the better off you will be when you are old, and you will then be able to spend your days doing nothing. The man looks at the American and says, but I already do that.
- What does this story tell us? Well, it says that more is not always better. You don't have to work so hard to be able to take it easy in your old age if you already work enough to get by and have time to take it easy now. I usually think about this story sometimes when I feel like I'm running around in the squirrel wheel that I hate running around in. Then I usually think that it doesn't usually matter if I work more or not as long as I manage financially here and now and follow my dreams.
Another story (though changed a bit by me because I don't remember the whole thing correctly) is the one about the son and the father where the father tells the son to show him what it's like to be poor. When the father brings the son home again, the son says, now I know we are poor. We swim in the bathhouse with everyone else while they had their own lake to swim in. We have to go to the store and shop while they grew all their own vegetables. We have to go to a park to play while they had the park right outside the door. The father is stunned by his son's explanation. What we think is better is not always that, the son saw it differently. He thought his family were poor, while his father thought the opposite.
So why then do people fall into the debt trap just to chase more? The fact is that society has created for us the image that more is better. If you have the latest, you have more status in society. Bigger house better status. But is this really the truth? Who is the real winner? The person who has toiled all his life for a bigger and bigger income to be able to enjoy life as a pensioner, a life that the person may never get to live because stressful environments often lead to diseases in, among other things, the heart. Or the person who had so he managed and enjoyed life all his life and died with a smile on his face because he had achieved peace in life. The choice is actually in us. Should we work to follow the norm or should we go our own way. I go my own way. I do what feels right to me. I am chasing a richer life but a life rich in experiences, knowledge, love. The choice is yours.
