My Unfair Advantage

I have a confession to make. It almost disqualifies me from writing about personal finance. You see, I have never had a problem with the hedonic treadmill. I don’t squirm uncomfortably after Thanksgiving dreading Black Friday. My unfair advantage is that I have no interest in things. I almost never have. Sure there were momentary lapses with baseball cards or some electronic or another while growing up. But it has never been a stretch for me not to spend my money.

I don’t dream of expensive cars or fancy houses. I have very few hobbies that require cash, and have so far not been interested in collecting expensive stuff.

It’s like a financial independence superpower.

Genetics?

I’m not sure where my unfair advantage came from. It certainly isn’t something that I was taught. I remember my parents enjoying spending money when I was younger, but never to excess. I am wondering if I was just born this way.

I can think of two experiences that have shaped my feelings about things. As a child I collected baseball cards. I loved to buy packs from the store and sort through them. I spent years collecting, collating, and trading. Although my eyes would sparkle when I came a cross a rare rookie card or a valuable find, I never spent any time paying for more than the basic cheap packs that I could buy at the five and dime.

The joy was not in the having, it was in finding the diamond in the rough. It was in making a stellar trade, or beating the odds and finding a valuable card in a cheap fifty cent pack.

I collected for many years, but never spent more than small sums at a time. I simply didn’t buy the expensive cards, I found a way to own them through luck or savvy.

Art Work

After the purchase of my first home, I fell in love with the idea of fine art to decorate my empty walls. I scoured galleries and eventually the internet to find a few pieces to surround myself with. I won’t lie and say I didn’t spend some money in the beginning. But my interest peaked to the point where I learned powerful bargain hunting skills on the internet.

I turned those skills into an online art gallery and eventually bought and sold a few hundred thousand dollars of art work over the next several years. Sadly, the business of art became more interesting than the art work itself, and I eventually sold all my inventory.

I quit the business when life got busy, but was left with enough to decorate my house.

I had lost my joy in buying art.

Clothes, Cars, Houses

Although I have talked about my major stealth wealth fail, I have no real love for fast cars or expensive houses. My unfair advantage is that usually I am prone to not buy something until it is absolutely necessary. And when I do, I am usually happy with second-hand, discounted, or just good enough.

I hate shopping. I hate the Apple store. Although I enjoy going to malls to get exercise and see people, I rarely purchase anything.

One of the greatest advantages to my half retirement is that I no longer need work clothes anymore. No suits or ties. No sports jackets. I pretty much can wear jeans everyday. Less clothes means less shopping.

Final Thoughts

I have strategic edge in the financial independence game. My unfair advantage is that I have no interest in things. Shopping exhausts me. So does taking care of things I own. My few historic attempts at hedonism have led to a loss of interest in the thing itself or the formation of a business.

I kind of like it this way.

I’m all for advantages.