Memories Appreciate, Stuff Depreciates

October 5, 2009 by Jim

Greg Karp, author of The 1-2-3 Money Plan, on the Personal Finance Hour show a few weeks ago, something that Greg said really resonated with me (and I said so during the show).

I paraphrase: Memories appreciate, while stuff depreciates.

I suppose I intuitively knew this because I’ve always been an “memories” type of person. Stuff is nice, but if I am to splurge, I do it on experiences rather than things. However, until he said it, I never really thought of it that way.

In our minds, we tend to build up the good things and downplay the bad things. Think of the last vacation you had, ours was a fantastic vacation to Europe. I remember all the fun times we had with friends in the pubs of Ireland, England, and Scotland. I remember the great food we ate in Italy and the wonderful views and castles along the Rhine in Germany. I don’t really remember the scramble to catch trains or how we scrambled around Montreux to find a hotel to sleep in. You remember the good things.

As for stuff, I’ve never been a huge fan of stuff because I didn’t like packing it up in boxes whenever I moved. When you think about it, most physical things only depreciate. Your car requires maintenance, fuel, and cleaning. The various chotchkies and trinkets you have around the house requirement cleaning and dusting. I’m not anti-stuff, but given the choice I’ll go with making a new memory over buying something.

What do you think?

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