Art and antique collectors are revered as cream of the crop; they have got the taste, talent and the dough to prove it. Well, that may be so but the harder job to perform is not collecting things worth collecting but to disassociate with things worth not collecting. Throughout our life we just seem to be doing only one taks --acquiring things. Things to make us happier, safer, healthier. However, like the cycle of Nature that pertains to planned obsolescence, the utility of things disappears after their use. (Now ask this of any woman of means- -would you like to wear the same clothes again?) Unfortunately, long after the utility of things has worn out, we continue to keep, we continue to hoard things. The instinct to do this goes back t o our days of living in the caves when only those who were good hoarders survived the rigours of winters. Today, in the age of fast food, fast communication and almost instant accessibility to things, the need to hoard anything is practically gone. We, however, continue to do so. What good is a shoe that no longer fits though it still shines, a tie with a ripped seam, a calculator that you no longer use, a radio that you have not used for three years, a suit that's too sizes too small now, spectacle frames that you are never going to use. Why don't we just throw these things away? We do not do this for the same wrong reason that we acquire them in the first place. Acquiring things on a need only basis is an art not a sign of being miserly. Yes, we need clothes and shoes and glasses and computers and cars and pens and colognes but do we buy what we need or we get things whimsically and for wrong reasons. Do you ever go out shopping after you read a sign for a sale in the store? If you ever did, you are among the 90% of people who I call poor shoppers --they will be poorer after they buy things they do not really need and more so, they will feel miserable around them when they would not be able to use them for long. Here is a word of wisdom for those who suffered the scrooge of things around them. Before you buy anything of acquire it (this includes things given to you free; watch out, the person giving you a "gift" may have read this article) ask yourself a question, do you really need it? If the answer is yes, buy it now without waiting for it to go on sale. If you can do without it, ask yourself a question, would acquiring this thing make me happy? If the answer is yes, buy it now again without waiting for it go on sale. But if you neither need it nor does it make you happy --stay away from it as far as you can, regardless of how cheap (even if it is free). The difference between being selective and being miserly is a fine line that you should learn how to walk. Take for example, the question of jewelry. A woman like jewelry because it makes her feel secure, prettier and rich. She will take it all and frankly if you can afford it, go for it. But if you acquire jewelry because everyone else is doing the same then you are going into the worst investment possible. And that brings us to the topic of why people buy things for wrong reasons. Ostentation is for weaker souls.

[21 September 1997 The Daily Dawn]