The Value of Accumulating Luxuries

Money makes you comfortable not happy. That’s the distinction many people can’t make.

And I think that principle is easy to internalize when you have money to to make you comfortable — and then learn you’re no happier than when you were poor.

If I understand you right:

The value of accumulating luxuries, is in realizing that luxuries have no inherent value.

That’s an interesting insight. I’d like to extend it a little further:

The value of making mistakes, is realizing they are mistakes.

… and therefore we shouldn’t look down on ourselves or others for the mistakes we make.

I don’t necessarily consider it a mistake though. It’s part of experiencing life. I don’t regret the accumulation and the hollow joy that ensues — now, if it hurled me into bankruptcy, yeah, I would consider it a mistake. But with the limited spend and therefore limited consequences, have little to regret and am glad I had the experience.

I’ve always thought it would be interesting to accumulate wealth in the first part of your life & spend the last half

giving it away to worthy causes or trying to solve problems in the world. Similar to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.

I’ve always thought this sort of philanthropy to be a bit odd. Not talking about the Gates specifically, but it seems many business leaders spend their life making less-than-ethical business choices to “get ahead”, whether it’s polluting the environment, over working/under-compensating employees, price gouging, lobbying… and amass all this wealth, just to spend it all the rest of their lives on good causes. On the one hand, I’m grateful for their generous contributions. I also understand that there’s a lot more recognition from opening up a hospital ward or museum, than giving your ground workers a livable salary. But I’d much rather hear of someone who has spent a lifetime doing good and helping those they can, than someone who has done everything they can to amass enormous wealth, and then expend it at the end of their lives, in one grand display of generosity.

I mean, it seems backwards the dastardly environments factory workers must work in, compared to the beauty and refinement of most museums. Some people spend most of their lives slaving away in those factories. (A little off topic. Hope that’s ok.)

I find that my family enjoys accumulating stuff. Because of my frugal heart I encourage this accumulation through less expensive means on the post consumer market (yard sales, classifieds, ebay, etc.) For the first half of our marriage we were moving about every 3 years and this provided incentive to have a purge of furniture and other items. We have now lived in our current location for 7 years and we are definitely noticing that our home is running low on space. Maybe it is time for our own post consumer marketplace.

I’ve always thought it would be interesting to accumulate wealth in the first part of your life & spend the last half

giving it away to worthy causes or trying to solve problems in the world. Similar to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.

Better maybe to have one third struggling, one third thriving and one third giving it away.

Most folk cling to wealth and getting it young can be a bad thing. In the case of Bill Gates, let’s just say his road to success was not always a straight one.

SD, you always post interesting topics. Many will leave me scratching my head for a number of days. This is one of them. This is my “come away” or conclusion from your post. Please tell me if I’m wrong. “After accumulating luxury items (or stuff), the process has run it’s course, I’m done & I’ve

learned a lesson. The lesson is: it didn’t bring me happiness & it cluttered my home.” Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Thanks, I will take it as a complement (the head scratching part).

You basically have it. I would modify it this way:

“After accumulating luxury items (or stuff), the process has run it’s course, I’m done & I’ve

learned a lesson. The lesson is: the “getting” of luxuries brought me temporary happiness in the getting, but now I’m sick of the items I don’t use, and it cluttered my home.”

I have to confess, I still get urges now and then, but all I have to do is think about the clutter, what it will take to deal with all the stuff if I move, and more. And then I stop wanting them.

Also, I’m a frugle bugle, so my luxuries are another man’s chump change. Our cars are 15-20 years old, I dress cheaply, but appropriate for my work, and we take cheap vacations, if we take them at all.

There is a method of behavior modification in psychology called “the fatigue method”. This where if you have a bad habit, you lessen or remove it by overdoing it. For example, if hooked on cigarettes, smoke them continuously until the point you are sick, and you never want to do it again.

I think that is part of what I’m talking about here. I had a guy on my mission who was on discipline with the church. We were talking about a new hobby sport in which he seemed to have expressed an interest. I suggested he get into it. He said ‘No, I’ve indulged in enough vices in my life it’s time to simplify — I’m tired of my vices”. I don’t know what “vices’ he was talking about, but he’d indulged to the point he was over it. The hassle of possessions seems to overwhelm the temporary happiness of getting…

That’s kind of my point.

Our basement is filled with stuff “someone” could use but is never given away or offered to Goodwill, etc. (I’m starting to rant.)

I believe this could be the accumulation of luxuries too.

As you recognized, the accumulation of “things” can be unhealthy too. If you’ve seen that show ‘Hoarders’ you know what I mean. Often, the accumulation of things (and not necessarily luxuries) is some other problem lurking underneath. Depression, lingering grief over the loss of a loved one (so the grieving person hangs on to the deceased person’s possessions), perhaps unhappiness in their relationships, burn-out. In those case, I guess the value of creating luxuries is found in creating a visible symptom (tip of the iceberg) that indicates change is necessary.