Lighter and Happier

The other day Steffani and I dropped by a friends’ house to drop off a gift.  It was the best kind of gift, one that I hadn’t used in a while and that I knew him or at least his kids would love.  Best of all, when we got in our car I remarked to Steffani that my backpack was lighter and consequently I was happier.

In my short 33 years on this planet, I have realized I am a bit abnormal in many ways.  One of those ways is I don’t like to have a lot of stuff.  The less stuff I have typically the happier I am.  This thought first occurred to me on my round the world trip that I took back in 2010.

I traveled around the world, or technically 6 continents as my friend Brandon loves to point out, and only carried a large backpack and a smaller backpack.  It was then that I realized I could get used to this idea of carrying only a few things around.  Similarly, I lived in various apartments and houses in Sarasota for 10 years and had the packing thing down to a science.  It was usually 6-8 of those big plastic bins worth of stuff, a couple Honda Civic car fulls and I was good to go.

Don’t misunderstand me here, I have my weaknesses for stuff I like too.  If I had the money I’d have probably no less than 10 classy watches.  Thankfully, I don’t have the money for that sort of thing.  As mentioned in a previous blog, I do have a weakness for tech stuff too.

Overall though, I find my life is better when I have fewer things to worry about.  This will change in the future I’m sure if we ever buy a home.  For many Americans home ownership represents the American dream and therefore a sense of freedom.  For me it’s the exact opposite.  The less stuff I own the freer I am.

Just for kicks I looked up a mortgage calculator the other day just to get a rough idea of what a home might cost.  It is insane the cost of owning a home to me.  If you don’t put 20% down, you have PMI insurance.  You have house taxes, home owner’s insurance, the interest on your home loan, your mortgage payment every month including principal, if anything like an appliance breaks you have to replace that too.  It truly seems unending to me.  

It is certainly something Steffani and I will have to work out; I’m pretty positive she’s going to want a home way before I do.  Hopefully we’ll be able to buy one in Cuba by then for cheaper than we could find in the states.