Everything I Need: Abundance in Retirement on a Shoestring

I’ve finally come to a stage in my life where I think that I have pretty much have everything I need. Really! What’s more when I feel like it I go ahead and buy whatever it is that takes my fancy. Yes, although I’m far from being a shopaholic there’s the odd purchase, impulsive or othewise. Sometimes I need to replace something that’s broken or at the end of its life. I seem to be able to do that with ease even though my income is below the threshold where I start paying income tax. So why do I feel pretty much complete from a material perspective? I’ve come up with three reasons.

A Lifetime of Accumulation

I’ve now had sixty years to gather together a house and vanful of possessions. It feels like I’ve come to the point where I’ve bought most of the gadgets, decorative items, hobby stuff and furniture that I’ll ever need to lead a comfortable and fulfilled life. In fact I’m more prone to getting rid of stuff these days than buy stuff. The out-in ratio now probably is about 5:1.

While working I used to visit care homes on a regular basis. It struck me how little the elderly people who lived there had materially. Some of then had once owned the massive houses around the area. Now all of their possessions fitted into sparsely furnished single bedrooms. There were just toiletries, photos, some clothing , a magazine and maybe a knick-knack or two.

Now I’ve written about Swedish Death Cleaning before. Given the effort that it took to downsize the possessions of my own parents for their move to a bungalow I’m loathe to give my son the same chore. So I’ll be aiming overall to reduce what I own as the years go for this very reason. In the meantime I’ll enjoy and cherish what I have.

Wanting Very Little

There really is very little that I want that I don’t already have. At this moment there’s nothing on my wish list except a new display unit for my e-bike handlebars. Yep, I’m accident prone, broke the old one and it can’t be repaired A couple more pairs of lycra cycling shorts to keep me decent when I’m pedalling along would be very handy. But that’s absolutely it.

There’s nothing grand that I covet. I’m happy with our house, its contents and our two ageing vehicles. Even if we had a windfall I’d be hard pressed to think about changing anything pronto. At some time we’d replace the car and our very elderly motorhome but there wouldn’t be any rush to do so while they still work! Gifting for family and friends would be more of a priority.

Except for those two little items that I’ve mentioned there’s absolutely nothing else that I can think of that I realistically want at the moment. I did think I wanted some gro-bag trays for the pots in my greenhouse but my partner, Paul, went ahead and bought those as soon as I mentioned it. Living with this sense of contentedness is a nice place to be. But it’s a bit annoying for my family when they ask what they can buy me for Christmas and birthdays. I’ve just turned sixty my brother really wants to buy me a special present. I can’t think of anything that I want. Surprisingly though people often come up trumps when they surprise me.

No Sense of Lack

Every so often I spot something that I think that it might be nice to have. It could be a dress in a charity shop, a gadget for doing this or that or something made by someone clever and creative. The picture at the top of this post represents something in that category. It’s a little fairy by Marie from Little Bird of Paradise Creations. I now own three of her whimsical dollies.

I’ll also replace things that are totally broken or that are playing me up and being really annoying. Last year I renewed a very crashy laptop and a three year old phone that leaked its charge in a couple of hours. Life seems to be too short to be wasting time faffing around with things that don’t work properly.

When I do want to buy something I just go ahead and do so. In spite of my limited income of a small income and carer’s allowance I feel able to do this. For one thing purchases are pretty infrequent. But there’s also a real sense that I can have what I want and my needs will be met. I feel very looked after.