Travelling light


In the midst of my hectic work schedule and turbulent financial markets, my wife often reminds me of the importance of travelling light. It's funny how, the more you have of something, the more important that thing becomes to you. David Eddings, in his Belgariad series (which started as one of my favourite book series but unfortunately descends into farce towards the tail end, but I digress), writes about Murgo gold - a kind of red gold purveyed by the bad guys of the series. The gold has a spell cast on it, so that the more red gold you have, the more you need it, until you are enslaved by it. It's a bit of a coarse allegory, but the point is all the clearer for it.

I think the same thing can probably be said about most material things - money, car, house, career. The more money you have, the more you need, the more measures you take to protect it, to invest it, until the fact of having money itself becomes a problem. Which FD has the highest yield? Which stock or unit trust is defensive in these times? Is the market turning?

Or, take cars, or for women, bags :) What's the latest car/bag model? How much is it? How much of a bargain could I get if I waited for the sale? Should I get a BMW or a Merc? Or maybe a Volvo or Lexus? An LV or a Gucci? Or, wait for it, a Birkin (which, upon consultation with my wife as I write this, I understand to be like the Ferrari of bags :P)?

This is where "travelling light" becomes really useful, at least to me. My rule for buying stuff is simple. Does it work? Which is the most affordable of the lot that works? And it's amazing how much that cuts down difficult choices.

I consider myself fortunate that my wife and I are pretty much like-minded in this regard. One of my favourite anecdotes about this aspect of our married life is this:

We were once in the US and we were walking around the supermarket separately. These US supermarkets are huge! Anyway, after wandering around for half an hour, we both came back to the cashier. Believe it or not, we both had only one item, and it was identical - a pack of cookies that was on half price :)

The point I'm making is that travelling light, in terms of consumerism at least, really results in simplicity of life, because it takes away a lot of headache for choices in relation to matters which really don't matter a whole lot, like the logo on your shirt or your bag or your car. In an article several years ago, the award winning journalist Robert J Samuelson called this the "Affliction of Affluence". The article is still available at http://www.newsweek.com/id/53435. American sociologist Barry Schwartz also wrote about this and a nice summary is here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less.

If you've seen my car, you'll probably agree that I've just about got the hang of travelling light as far as cars are concerned, but I've yet to learn how to apply this holistically - the importance I place on my career comes to mind. Let me be clear - it doesn't mean that it's bad in itself to have an expensive car or bag or a successful career. Having more things does make it more difficult though, so what we should do is learn to manage it, so that we understand that beyond the outer trappings, we travel light.

Barack Obama quotes the Bible in the opening of his book "Dreams from my father"

"For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." 1 Chronicles 29:15 (KJV)

If the potential President of the United States can recognise the importance of travelling light, then I think I surely should as well :)

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