I was pleasantly surprised by the book “It’s All Too Much” by Peter Walsh. I usually don’t get much out of books in the motivational or self-help category, but this one is different. The ideas can be applied to your financial life as well.
I thought I was pretty good at getting rid of junk that I don’t need, but Walsh systematically went through the types of things that we own and explained why we keep them and why we don’t need most of them. The feeling that he wrote parts of the book specifically for me was eerie.
My house isn’t particularly cluttered, but I realize now that I could get rid of at least half of my stuff and not miss it. In fact, the extra space in my house would make my life better. At a minimum, I would be able to find the things I do need more easily.
I work hard to handle my finances rationally, but I realize now that I do some things for emotional reasons. This doesn’t automatically make them wrong, but looking at them in a different light made me realize that I’ll be happier if I make a few changes.
Do you subscribe to magazines that you don’t read, but you like the idea of the sort of person you’d be if you did read them? Cancel the subscriptions.
Do you own stocks with a dim future, but you’re still hoping that they’ll get back up to what you paid for them? Choose an opportune time to capture the capital loss and sell them.
Do you pay monthly fees for services for your bank account that you don’t use? Investigate your options and choose something cheaper. Just because you’ve done things a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean you have to keep doing them this way. Things change over time and so can you.
I highly recommend this book to change your thinking about uncluttering your life literally and figuratively.
Sounds like an interesting book. I'll put it in my list.
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