STUFF

I have just learned of a new web site: http://storyofstuff.com/ It has GREAT information on our "Stuff!" Definitely watch "The Story of Stuff" video. (It is about 20min. Long so you may have to make time for it).

The next is an excerpt from an article on the Internet titled, "Stuff" Written July 2007. Go to http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html to read entire article.)

"I have too much stuff. Most people in America do. In fact, the poorer people are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they can't afford a front yard full of old cars.It wasn't always this way. Stuff used to be rare and valuable. You can still see evidence of that if you look for it. For example, in my house in Cambridge, which was built in 1876, the bedrooms don't have closets. In those days people's stuff fit in a chest of drawers.

Even as recently as a few decades ago there was a lot less stuff. When I look back at photos from the 1970s, I'm surprised how empty houses look. As a kid I had what I thought was a huge fleet of toy cars, but they'd be dwarfed by the number of toys my nephews have. All together my Matchboxes and Corgis took up about a third of the surface of my bed. In my nephews' rooms the bed is the only clear space.

Stuff has gotten a lot cheaper, but our attitudes toward it haven't changed correspondingly. We overvalue stuff.That was a big problem for me when I had no money. I felt poor, and stuff seemed valuable, so almost instinctively I accumulated it. Friends would leave something behind when they moved, or I'd see something as I was walking down the street on trash night (beware of anything you find yourself describing as "perfectly good"), or I'd find something in almost new condition for a tenth its retail price at a garage sale. And pow, more stuff.

In fact these free or nearly free things weren't bargains, because they were worth even less than they cost. Most of the stuff I accumulated was worthless, because I didn't need it.What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will." - End of Excerpt

I just thought those were excellent thoughts on the matter.

I think I am so interested in the subject is because I watch a lot of "Till Debt Do Us Part" a Canadian T.V. Show of a financial expert going around to couples in trouble with their finances creating trouble in their marriages. It is actually EXTREMELY helpful with financial tips AND you can see how many people there really ARE out there who have nothing. And when I say nothing I mean that they spend over their amount of income Every single month and end up in over their heads with debt, yet they live a life like they have been financially blessed or something.

I definitely think twice when I see people around me who seem to have Everything because those people might be thousands in debt over this facade of a life they are trying to live. It teaches me to follow the counsel that Prophets time and time again have told us and that is to ONLY accumulate debt with a car and/or house that is WITHIN your Means (Meaning that you could Actually afford it!) And schooling. You should ALWAYS KNOW what kind of financial situation you are in.

You can't have everything thing you want the very moment you want it, but you can enjoy the things that you do have and be happy knowing that you value what truly is valuable and that is Friends and family. Stuff truly is Just Stuff.

Love Always,

Mrs. Fray Fray