Thoughts on Consumerism, Vanity, and Enrichment

To enjoy life, you don't need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren't as serious as you make them out to be.
TIM FERRISS

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am a cheapskate. What this means is that I don't buy a lot of consumer items on credit. The reality is that if I won the lottery tomorrow (which I never play) my lifestyle would not change at all except in the most marginal sense. Basically, I would upgrade the things I already enjoy now. I would not buy a Ferrari or quit my job.

I have definite ideas about the concept of enrichment. I am influenced by the voluntary simplicity and minimalist movements but also by the writings of economists like Tyler Cowen and philosophers like Alain de Botton. I minimize the material aspects of my life, but I maximize the immaterial with no regard to status.

We buy things for the sake of other people. This is how the Subaru becomes the Hummer and the simple house becomes the McMansion. Maintaining this higher lifestyle requires additional work and added stress which actually impoverishes your life in the immaterial sense. You don't have time to read a book or go for a run or what have you. There is a reason evolution eliminates the nonessential like legs on a snake. If you don't need it, it makes sense to get rid of it. The caloric expenditure of having useless body parts is too much. So, nature edits them out. Similarly, if you don't need a Ferarri, you should edit that out. Considering the speed limits we have, a Ferrari is a waste of horsepower and your money.

I believe in frugality but not austerity. Live in a decent home. Drive a decent car. But leave it at that. When I read that Warren Buffett drives a Cadillac DTS that has some miles on it and lives in a stucco home he bought in the 50's, this tells me that there is a limit to the amount of happiness money can buy. Money is very overrated.

For me, a rich life is one that is culturally and intellectually and experientially rich. Anyone familiar with Tim Ferriss will learn that this can be had for very little dough. In fact, it costs less to travel abroad than to live at home. The irony of today's world is that to enrich your life in any meaningful way requires that you get rid of things you don't need.

People are vain. But I find people are way more impressed by you knowing a foreign language or your pictures from hiking in Yosemite than they are by what you drive and where you live. The people I envy are the ones who have knowledge and skills and live simple lives in the pursuit of more of the same. Owning more or flashier stuff is no substitute. The treadmill of acquisition yields diminishing returns. If getting more money doesn't bring you greater freedom in your life to do the things that are truly enriching, then you are wasting your time.

Posted in: