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I don’t own a lot of stuff, but the stuff I do own is nice
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Same...I've owned much of it for years, and have little interest in the "latest and greatest". I tried explaining the philosophy behind it in one of the never-ending "how much $$$ to live comfortably in retirement" threads in GD, and eventually gave up. I never made a fortune in salary, but I did make up my mind early that if I was going to have it in my life, I wanted the best quality I could barely afford, and started
slowly accumulating those things as our expense and investment schedule allowed. I have a tall Katani lamp I had to save for in 1989 as a single E-4 in Japan, a full block of Zwilling Pro-S kitchen knives my new bride wasn't happy about in Europe as an E-5, the Browning Citori 525 I bought as an E-6 on my first assignment back to the US...the list goes on and on. Most of it was pretty damned expensive for an enlisted guy, but earning it - one piece at a time - has added value to me that goes well beyond the original cost. Funny, too, because for the most part that same stuff is hellishly more expensive now.
Wife grew up very poor, and took a
long time to break her out of the "this will do" mentality. We needed a new dining room table and chairs a year or two ago, and found a walnut Stickley set we both liked. She wrinkled her brow over the tag, and wrote the check.