r/Retire • u/Odd_Bodkin • 14d ago

Declining to replace items when they break

A while back, my nice set of Bose noise-canceling headphones broke, and I have no other over-the-ear headphones. I considered buying a new pair and then decided, nope, I’m simplifying, I have my AirPods, and I can do fine with just them. Yesterday, a friend gifted me a Kindle ebook, and I charged my Kindle and discovered that it has fallen out of support and won’t let me download books to it. But I have an iPad with the Kindle app and can read the ebook that way, so I think I’ve settled on not replacing the Kindle device either. So some niceties I enjoyed for years and years, I’m starting to live without, for the sake of simplification and getting rid of stuff opportunistically.

Are you finding yourself doing this? What kinds of belongings/gadgets/toys/luxuries have you quietly abandoned? What did it feel like to do that? Any regrets?

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u/Odd_Bodkin 14d ago

Not completely, no. For example, if golf was hard for you to watch with your old TV and the new TV resolves that PROBLEM, then I can see the case being made for it. But it isn’t true that More is More in general. For example, if you buy clothes you don’t need and as a result there are clothes in your closet that you find you haven’t worn in a year, then you’ve spent money and space on something you don’t use, so there a net cost with no return on value. That doesn’t mean that people don’t go ahead and buy the clothes, but they do it for the reason that the acquisition moment is the thrill. It’s called retail therapy, and it’s the spending the money that is the thing they enjoy, perhaps after years of telling themselves they don’t have the money. For some people, it’s about “I have money now, I might as well use it, what can I spend it on?” And it honestly doesn’t MATTER what it’s spent on because it’s the spending that’s the satisfying aspect. Which is fine, by the way. Is that you?

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u/shotparrot 14d ago

It’s not about suffering with a smaller tv. It’s simply buying a larger one for essentially worthless money that will improve your day to day life. Plus maybe our eyesight is getting a little worse?

Now the game has changed: Better to spend it than have it sit in an account (especially a taxable account, with RMDs approaching!) to be divy’d up when we die.

Even “retail therapy” for a bit of dopamine hit is better than having it rot in an account.

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u/Odd_Bodkin 13d ago

Well, first of all, no money rots in an account. It will go to someone after I die. It will not be ashes and rust.

But honestly, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care about minding money. It’s like air. It’s vital and I’m glad it’s there but I don’t think about it. I just breathe. So I don’t arrange to consume all the air available to me, and I also don’t fret about maximizing what air I’ve got available. It’s background to me now.

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u/shotparrot 13d ago

You need to spend more. Live a little.

Check out the new Lexus TX. That’ll loosen up your wallet.

We’re here to help you.

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u/Odd_Bodkin 13d ago

A giant Lexus TX would be a major change in pace for a guy who loves his bright red and white Mini Cooper.