Simple Living: The Journey's First Steps

Over the past few days, I've gotten a few pieces of fairly unwelcome financial news. Yesterday, I found out I needed about $800 of work on my car to fix up the O2 sensor and catalytic converter so I could pass my emissions test. Then today, I got the really super news at the
dentist that I have a crack in one of my molars and will need a crown… which AFTER insurance will run me $1,200. Needless to say, my wallet is a touch on the sore side this evening as I look over these completely unexpected costs.

All of this is a good lead-in (at least there was some silver lining to all of this) to something I've been thinking a lot about of late and something I plan on posting about quite a bit: what it would take and what it would mean to live a much simpler life. It occurs me quite a bit whenever I incur some financial hit because a simple life means seeking to live below your means and giving you a great deal of personal freedom.

This is not exactly a topic I plan on trying to tackle all in a single post, but I wanted to at least get the concept flowing now for everyone to consider since I'm sure there are a lot of people out
there who long for a little less life complication. So where to begin with a topic so vast? I thought this was a nice little piece over at Get Rich Slowly on how to get more value on what you already have.

It's a pretty interesting concept: Before you pull the trigger to make a purchase, get into the habit of being mindful to ask 2 questions:

1. How often will you use the item; and
   
2. How much enjoyment will you get out of it?

I've started to get myself into this habit of late because it can be very easy for me to confuse need against want. Perfect example. My car was giving me more hassles than I care to think about with the need for maintenance… and of course this was all kicking in after I got that bugger paid off. Feeling fed up with my car (the incredibly sexy 2001 Nissan Altima GXE… Limited Edition… because, you know… they only made like eleventy billion of them), I swung by an Infiniti dealership on my drive out from picking my ride up from service. I took an Infiniti G35x out for a spin and… holy crap, that was nice. I was rather smitten.

Oh sweet siren... call me not to my doom upon the rocks!

But you know what? As I left the dealership, got home and let the euphoria of dropping the hammer on 306 incredibly sweet horses wash away… I realized it was just a car. That's it. A really nice car, but just a car. It wouldn't change who I was as a person nor would it suddenly make me the definition of refined cool (as the commercials would suggest). What it would do is add an additional $650 to $700 per month to my budget with car payments and higher insurance premiums. So for me, it wasn't worth it… at least not yet. My car will crap out eventually and is rapidly approaching 100K miles, but until that time, it gets the job done.

This is a small step, but an important one - to begin to cut myself off from thinking things bring about the happiness or satisfaction you imagine they might as you consider snapping them up. It doesn't have to be something as elaborate and expensive as a finely tuned luxury sports sedan.

So here's to first steps that will, hopefully, lead to more and more steps... and more blog postings.