[Sat 10/10: 5 miles; Wed 10/14: 4.4 miles Sat 10/17: 5 miles; Mon 10/19: 3 miles]
I had a conversation with our insurance agent last week. She asked me to come in for a meeting to review our insurance and financial plans. We did this last year also. She wants to sell me whole-life insurance and I’m not excited about that idea.
But the interesting part of our conversation was about the accumulation of possessions. She likes to throw things out while her husband doesn’t.
I told her I am more like the husband. I think it is bad to be throwing things away when they could be fixed or are still usable. (I’m not consistent in that position. Things I don’t like I would gladly throw away. If you gave me a brand new ink-jet printer I would be happy to throw it straight in the trash. Even owning one is encouraging bad behavior on the part of the manufacturer, in my opinion.)
So we talked just briefly about the moral weight of possessions. You buy this thing, say it is an antique or has special value in some way. Maybe it is expensive or is a cultural artifact like a piece of art by a known artist. Suddenly you are the steward of this object and you have to treat it right and pass it along to the next generation. Uf-Dah!
You can’t just pitch it in the trash now, you have to find someone else worthy to pass it along to. (One measure of worthiness is how much they can/are willing to spend to acquire and maintain it!)
I think that kind of attitude is both laudable and messed up. I vacillate between the two.
3 replies on “Moral Weight”
I hope you didn’t get the whole life.
Do we own possessions or do possessions own us? We have had a lot of fires these past few years and lots of stories of people losing all their possessions and it’s very sad but the thing that you almost always hear when people relate their experiences is things are just things. It makes me think about my possessions – that the one thing I treasure most is something Ludeema made for me around 45 years ago – an afghan. Her hands created every square inch – probably while in the living room of the house I haven’t seen in (I think) decades. We are looking at moving abroad and selling everything in the process. Early retirement – never work again. That sort of thing. I think I would keep the afghan. But in a country that has the climate of Cuba it makes zero practical sense…
No to whole life; I went for the cheap term stuff.
I also have an afghan which doesn’t get used much because of pets and color preferences.
Also I have some hand made hot pads which give me the same joy.
Although I would like to have more vacation time available, I think that
“never work again” is overrated. That may just be me. If it works
for you then I’m for it.
My $.02
Term life insurance is the only product to look at and only in the framework of ‘what responsibilities will I need to fund after my passing’. Everything else is a waste of money. People without kids, a family business, farm or similar responsibilities should go into any sales presentation inclined to not buy anything.
I had a friend who was a retired finance professor at our local university. In his retirement, he ran the endowments for several foundations and charity hospitals; so he was a serious person. He said one of the things he felt financially fortunate things in his life was that he was able to save enough through life that he never needed to buy life insurance.