MORE We Have Too Much Stuff

One way to deal with it all.  There are better methods.

My previous post touched on the fact that we, like most Americans, have wayyyy too much stuff.  Too many possessions, too much junk, too much stuff we don’t need, don’t want, don’t use any more.  Sure, at one time we wanted it, needed it, had to have it.

Now, it just clutters up the room, the house, and our lives.

This is a pressing issue now as we prepare to move.  It’s the first time in 18 years since we rented a U-Haul, and we know from experience that U-Haul also means you pack, you carry, and you do pretty much everything.  Even though we haven’t moved in quite a while, in our 43 years of marriage we’ve moved 15 different times, four different states, and three cross-country moves.  We’ve got it down to a science – we’ve (mostly) learned from our mistakes.

First off, the more you have, the more you have…to move, so get rid of what you won’t need in the new home.  Second, furniture is heavy.  We started buying less for design and more for functionality – that is to say, weight.  Another tip – know where the Goodwill truck is parked, and have other outlets for the stuff they won’t take.

Even though we know all this, it seems we still face countless boxes to pack up and move.  Books are the main culprit, though this time we seem to have gobs of paper.  Files from the business, files from the construction project for the new house, and many many many files we have not culled in quite some time.  Thank goodness we own a shredder.

If our own history hasn’t taught us the value of decluttering and simplicity, our families have provided more (junk) food for thought.  When my grandmother died and my father dragged me to her house to go through all of her stuff, I was shocked.  She was a prudent woman who “lived through the depression, you know” and was just not about possessions.  She and my grandfather lived simply and frugally.  So I thought.

She was a packrat of the worst kind.

She did not throw ANYTHING away.  Ever.  We found Christmas presents given years ago, still in the original box.  With the original wrapping paper.  And never used (neither the gift nor the paper).  We found boxes for jars and lids for canning (she stopped canning food a long time ago) and we found shelves of food she HAD canned…again, a long time ago.  My father cursed for days as we packed box after box to take to the Salvation Army and the thrift store.

Fast forward years later, and it’s me, my brother, and my Mom after Dad died.  In the basement.  With Dad’s ELEVEN bowling balls (he quit bowling 10 years prior).  And old work clothes and tools (he retired 13 years ago).  And so.  Much.  Junk.

He obviously didn’t learn a thing from his own mother, or he was seeking revenge for her pack-rattiness in the only way he could.  We found all sorts of “fun” and “interesting” things my mother had NO IDEA that he had kept from DECADES ago.  We found broken radio earplugs – 13 pairs, that Mom said he was “going to get around to fixing one of these days.”  We even found a gun she never knew he had.  But the best discovery was a 36 count box of Trojans (it was opened, but I never bothered to count how many were in the box – most of them, for sure).

I did mention my father was 77 when he died, didn’t I?

I did mention we found the condoms in his dresser drawer – and that by “we” I mean “my mother and I.”

I was embarrassed, and looking for a way to explain what, or how, or why, when Mom said, “Why, shit – what the hell did he need these for?”  And began to laugh hysterically.  “He sure didn’t need no gawd damn condoms.  Oh, Gawd!  Who the hell did he…?  Shit!  Oh my Gawd!”  I have never seen her laugh like that.  Ever.  It certainly came at the right time, as she had been feeling very maudlin about Dad’s passing, and it made the rest of the clean up a little easier.

But there was still too much stuff.  It took days to go through it all and to get rid of it.  And while I have no condoms of my own to move, I am a bit more careful about getting rid of stuff I don’t use or need any more.  My next post will be my “scorecard” as to our efforts in simplification.  Some good, some bad…some ugly.

We Have Too Much Stuff (you do, too)

Not, no this bad.  Still.

It's true.  We have too much stuff.

Unless you’re a Buddhist monk with your robe, sandals, and begging bowl, this probably means you, too.  We have too much stuff.  You have too much stuff.  Americans have way too much stuff.  And while it might be treacherous…nay, treasonous to say this in a consumer-based economy, it’s still true.

This is not a new position for me.  I was reminded of it last fall when we drove cross-country on I-80 and back on I-40 and witnessed truck after truck after truck loaded with goods from Amazon, Wal-Mart, and all the various trucking companies that haul those containers (many of which come in near us in Portland).  Sure, Christmas was just a month and a half-away, but it seemed like every other vehicle was a truck destined for some huge warehouse or warehouse store.

I was reminded again last week driving through our “new home area.”  As you enter neighboring Scappoose on US 30 you see one…two…three…four HUGE store-it-yourself storage facilities.  There are EIGHT in St Helens on the other side of us.  And we saw two new ones being built elsewhere along US 30 north of here.

The need for all that storage is amazing considering that homes today are much larger than they used to be – maybe 60-70% bigger.  With two-and-three car garages, no less.  We still need more room for all that stuff.  And tell the truth – how many of you know someone who can’t even park any of their cars in the garage because the garage is already filled up with all that stuff?  I can think of several – so many that when counting I run out of fingers.

Of course, some people have more than one home.  And still have the need for storage elsewhere.  That’s crazy.  The whole “multiple home” thing is crazy, too.  OK, I know that some people have a second home for vacationing (Seaside wouldn’t exist without ‘em) and I get that.  But three home?  Or seven?  YOU CAN’T LIVE IN TWO/THREE/SEVEN PLACES AT ONCE.

Multiple homes, cars, phones…it goes on and on.  Sure, you’re a two-car family because you have two people. But why does one person have three cars.  Again, you can’t drive them at the same time.  I can see having a car for transportation and a truck or van for work, but…  And why does one person need three cell phones?  I know TWO people who do so. 

And it seems like everyone has some sort of “collection” that threatens to take over every square inch of living area.  Owning a collection of cars (I know two who collect), or guns (three), or sports memorabilia (two more).  You name it – I collect gambling memorabilia, but poker chips are small (the entire collection fits in a file cabinet). 

Books.  We have a few.  OK, quite a few.  The spousal unit has more than I, but we’re not immune to this (there’s a bookcase in almost every room in the house, and we’ve gotten rid of hundreds of books in the last couple of years).

Google the title of this post – “We have too much stuff” – and you get 1.7 BILLION results.  Lots of good advice.  Probably more advice given in the last few years than ever, as more and more people realize that they are strangling themselves with too much stuff.  Decluttering is popular term, as is “Simplify,” “Downsizing,” and “Swedish Death Cleaning.”

We’ve been downsizing and simplifying and scaling down and doing the “clean and purge” (that’s what we call it) for years.  And we still have too much stuff.

So much so that I have to write another post explaining it all…

Media calls for President's resignation? READ ALL ABOUT IT (then laugh or cry)

The media is finally tired of all the lying – they’ve called for the President’s resignation!  Did you see these editorials?

"He should resign because he has resolutely failed — and continues to fail — the most fundamental test of any president: to put his nation's interests first…[he lacks] both…courage and…character…" - USA Today

"[The President] should resign. He should resign because his repeated, reckless deceits have dishonored his presidency beyond repair." - Philadelphia Inquirer

"[The President] should resign and go home…" - Detroit Free-Press 

"A president more concerned with the national interest than his own preservation would realize that resignation is his only responsible option." - Atlanta Journal Constitution 

What, you missed these?  Really?  Well, you can’t be blamed.  They’re all 20 years old.  All of these papers (and 111 more) were calling for the resignation of BILL CLINTON.

To my knowledge, none of them have called for Trump’s resignation.  But let’s be fair, there are several differences:

• Clinton’s inauguration was not under investigation
• Clinton’s foundation was not under investigation
• Clinton was not under investigation for being a foreign agent
• Clinton was not under investigation by the FBI, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, nor the Attorney General for the State of New York 
• Clinton’s lawyer was not in jail
• Clinton’s campaign manager was not in jail
• Clinton’s National Security Advisor was not in jail
• Clinton’s Foreign Policy Advisor was not in jail

And so on.  And hey, I’m not the only one who’s noticed the discrepancy here.  The Hartford Courant, in an editorial, also recalled how they called for Clinton’s resignation.  In the op-ed, they said, “How quaint that notion seems now.”  They go on, “Mr. Trump’s parade of outrages — from saying he could ‘stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody’ and not ‘lose any voters’ to siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over eight U.S. national security agencies on Russia’s interference in American elections — may have numbed the nation.”

I’m surprised they feel this way.  But I am not surprised at this – they have yet to call for Trump’s resignation.  No newspaper has.  The Philly Inquirer (quoted above) is another paper reviewing their call for Clinton’s resignation.  They say, “Exactly 20 years later, America is struggling to come to terms with a president whose tsunami of lies about matters both large and small have made Clinton’s Lewinsky lies look like a lonely mud puddle.”  And they lament the fact that no paper has called for Trump’s resignation.

But neither have they.  Why is that?  I’d love to hear your theories about this.  What’s different about the “liberal media” now?

He's been serving whoppers at the White House since the inauguration

Dribs and Drabs

Nothing here that’s earth-shattering or worthy of an entire post, but all together?  It’s in my head, so out it comes.

My sister-in-law gave me a 9 ounce can of chocolate covered coffee beans for Christmas.  I still have a third of a can left.  My brother-in-law gave us a tin of homemade toffee, and there’s half of that left, too.  My question is this – what the hell is wrong with me?

One of my new “you’re retired now so you have new things to do” jobs is cleaning out all my old emails.  Wow.  It’s, uh…been a while.  I found some oldies but goodies…

• We first started thinking about where we’d live in retirement in 2009, and I found an old email I sent to a company that makes modular homes (like what we got, but another firm).  I can’t believe I hung on to it, because at the time we said, “we can never afford this.”
• I went through all the emails from the kids that worked with us at the parlor, and I have concluded that “something just came up” = “I forgot this.”
• Don’t worry kids – I deleted ‘em all, so I won’t embarrass you later in life when you ask for a reference.
• It seems that, for a while, I forgot how to bookmark a website page.  Or I thought I found stuff that was really, really, REALLY interesting and didn’t want to forget about it, so I emailed the link to myself.  And then forgot about it, because I found such links in FIVE different folders.  So not only did I forget to go back to the links, I forgot where I was storing them.  To add insult to injury, most of the links are now dead.
• Just kidding kids – I saved ALL OF THEM.  Deleted a ton of other stuff, though.

Something else that slipped through the hands of time – Remembrance Day.  Nope, it’s not on your Hallmark calendar.  This is something we do every New Year’s Eve, though it’s a year-long event.  You’ve seen it on Facebook and elsewhere – every time something exciting/memorable/noteworthy happens, you write the event down on a small piece of paper and stick it in a jar (we use an old cookie jar, since we haven’t been making cookies of late).  When we went to read all of our notes for this year, we felt fond memories rising about 2018 – getting the business sold, getting the new house built (well, the progressive steps along the way).  Then Mona pulled out FINISHED ALPACA SWEATER.  “Wait a minute,” she said.  “That was last year.”  We pulled a few more from 2017 out of the jar and then realized that we never “celebrated” Remembrance Day last year.  Well, it WAS a stinker of a year.

I saw an article saying that paper books were making a comeback (versus eBooks).  Personal observation – I put three of my eBooks into paperback editions back in 2017, and initial response was “meh.”  This year?  MANY more sales, and now paperbacks are about half my total sales, even though only three of the five books are available in that edition.  I may need to rethink this.

Oh, and Mona’s paperback (see at right) got another 5-star review.  So go buy the thing already.  Or go review one of my books (provided you liked it).

Why does this remind me of a Redd Foxx album?

Finally – Am I the only one, or is the “Charmin Toilet Paper Bear Family” getting on your nerves, too?  They are starting to creep me out with all the “clean wipe” references.  Why not just go buy a bidet and be done with it?

What’s (Left) in Your Wallet?

Now that the holidays are over and everyone is back to work, let’s talk about the economy.  First, the good news:

• Christmas sales are expected to be up about 5% from last year.  Most retailers (except Apple) are pleased with the results.
• Today’s job numbers (for December jobs added) were stellar, much better than anticipated, and while the unemployment rate ticked up a bit, it’s still historically low, under 4%.
• 2018 showed solid U.S. GDP growth.  This along with the strong holiday sales point to an American economy that is more solid than fluctuating stock markets would suggest. 
• Consumer confidence is still high.

But we’ll get back to the stock market in a moment.  Now, the not-so-good news:

• Interest rates are up, making it more costly to borrow.
• The housing market is slowing down, partly due to those rising interest rates.
• The government is shut down, meaning that there are 800,000 government workers without pay – some still working, others furloughed.
• Bonus: an Executive Order froze all government salary rates for 2019.
• China's soybean imports from the United States plunged to zero in November, thanks to new tariffs.
• We’re still in a trade war.  Tariffs are impacting more than soybeans – cars, appliances, solar installations – many industries are just now feeling the pinch.  There are plant closings, layoffs, and bankruptcies of American institutions like Sears, Rockport, and Remington.
• The U.S. debt is rising.  So is the trade deficit.
• The global economy, while robust in 2017, is slowing, as evidenced by sputtering Germany factories and sluggish Chinese retail sales.  This, along with a strong dollar, is likely to hamper U.S. exports.

And getting back to the stock market – it’s taking a big jump today (based on those December job numbers).  This offsets the previous dip, so that for the year we’ll be just a smidge above where we started.  And, of course, the market has been in decline since October.  For the first time since 2008, stocks finished lower for the year.  It was the worst December since 1931.  Neither 1931 (Great Depression) nor 2008 (Great Recession) were harbingers of “good times ahead.”  So what’s REALLY happening with the market, and with the economy?

It’s the volatility, stupid.  Check out these graphs of the Dow.  It’s like watching wrestling – he’s up, he’s down, he’s up again.  But with BIG swings.  Some might say YUGE, both up and down, though again, the trend now is on the downside. 

This was last Friday, 12/28.  A wild ride that ended just a little lower than where it started.

Here's 2018 up to 12/18.  Peaks and valleys and we end on a BIG down note.

And here's the last five years - Obama's three (all up), and Trump's two (up and down).

To say, “there’s a great deal of volatility here” is putting it mildly.  The stock market is sometimes called a barometer of the economy, but the fact is that most Americans don’t own stocks (most are owned by the richest 10% and foreigners), so those numbers don’t mean squat to the average worker trying to live paycheck to paycheck.  And yet, the market is one of several indicators that show where we are in the economy. 

We know that the “great inequality” between the 1% and “everyone else” is growing.  The rich are getting richer, and the rest of us?  Not so much.  The tax reform act that passed last year sent more money to people who already had more money.  Touted as a “jobs act,” it created few jobs – there were some companies that expanded operations (because demand called for it), but most of the money went to something that until 1982 was illegal – stock buybacks.

In 2018 corporations spent a record $1 trillion buying back shares of their own stock (they’ve been doing this for years – they just went nuts last year).  These massive buybacks only pad the bonuses of corporate executives and wealthy investors, and provide no real benefit to the economy. 

Oh, and they artificially inflate stock values. So the market, which is off about 5% from 2017, could have been much worse off.  And 2017 should have been a good year, because across the globe economies experienced record growth.  The U.S. stock market has actually done worse than most of the developed world in 2017.  As a percent change in dollars, the U.S. has lagged behind the stock indices of France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Argentina, and Chile.

A year ago, I wrote a few blog posts (here, here, and here) about the tax cuts and last year’s government shutdown (is this an annual affair now, like January White Sales?).  I predicted that things wouldn’t turn out well, and I was right.  Eventually.  Yes, nothing happened right away, but the economy is like a steamship – it’s doesn’t just “turnaround” that quickly.

Personal Full Disclosure:  shortly after that last post on January 20, we unloaded our stock portfolio.  We’ve been “in the market” since the 80s and while I hated to do it, we feared the volatility of the market, not wanted to risk what little nest egg we had built up.  The timing wasn’t perfect to be sure, and there were times when I almost regretted the decision, but now we look smart.

Meanwhile, the interest rate on our HELOC has gone up a full point, while our savings are still mired in rates that would embarrass Ebenezer Scrooge.  Inflation is not that bad.  OK, the reported inflation rate isn’t bad, but the government has changed the way it calculates inflation more than 20 times.  If you’ve purchased meds, food, or tuition, you know what you’re paying now is more than what you paid last year.  This website calculated a “Shadow Inflation Rate” that sounds far more realistic.  And scary.

So what’s in store for the rest of 2019?  Uncertainty.  I don’t mean that I’m not certain what to expect, I mean I expect uncertainty.  That’s going to play havoc with the markets, with planning, with people’s incomes and lives.  It’s going to be a very bumpy ride.

And you haven’t even seen the new tax forms yet, have you?  You’ll shit.