Product Review! Nothing.
Deal alert deal alert.
Want to be the envy of all your friends and family? Fulfill humans greatest dreams and desires? A product that guarantees freedom beyond your wildest dreams. An inhibitor of great focus and consciousness. Want all this?
Yeah me too. And we have found the product to do just that
The product… is nothing.
That’s right. Nothing. Buying nothing.
Nothing has been proven to decrease clutter in our physical space and in our minds.
This lack of clutter then has been proven to increase focus and productivity. Without thousands of physical distractions around us daily we are allowed to narrow in on the physical objects in our lives that actually matter. Like ourselves, other human beings, and other forms of nature.
Why hello there little bird. I never noticed how beautiful you were until I started buying nothing.
Nothing allows mental freedom. Who can focus on getting ahead at work when all your things seemed to need to be repaired at the same time?
Who could ever retire from work when all your income is spent on something.
Who can focus on how to really communicate with their kids when the boat needs to be winterized? Who can focus on a healthy diet when the new smartphone 5,000 is coming out soon?
The person who buys nothing can focus on what is important.
Now you don’t need to go all Steve Jobs and live in an apartment with no furniture. Although it might not be terrible if you did. You don’t have to call yourself a minimalist. Although labels have always seemed to help me. No you don’t even need to get rid of all your current stuff. Although you could probably make a small fortune selling it all.
But this is what you do do. Stop the bleeding. Cut unnecessary and mindless buying right now. Start with small subscriptions (not Medium) and online shopping. Bad habits like gambling, smoking, and drinking. Anything else that may have blown into addiction status like clothes shopping and accessory shopping.
Next, pair down your current items. Craigslist, facebook yard sale, ebay. I have made close to $15,000 combined on those sites over the last 15 years. $1,000 a year average. I sold my stuff and then when that inventory went dry (WOOO NOTHING) I sold other peoples stuff. Two cars and two high end bicycles helped pushed that number but I also sold thousands of dollars worth of small stuff as well.
You can pair down and you can live with less.
One time I bought a brand new 2014 pickup truck (I call it the ego machine today). Then in 2017 had a bit of a change of heart and sold the truck. I went to a used car lot and bought a 2009 Toyota Prius for $2,000.
Then in 2018 I had another change of heart. Sold the Prius and bought an ebike!
Now I have no car. It’s like buying nothing. Nothing is my auto insurance. Nothing is my maintenance costs, nothing is my lease payments. Nothing rules.
What is the return on investment of nothing?
Funny you asked. Say you paired down and started buying more nothing. Previously you were buying $1,000 of something every month. Now you don’t.
Now you instead invest that money each month.
Like in an index fund that tracks the S&P 500?
Why heck yes.
Say you get a 7% return and do this for the next 25 years.
OK $12,000 invested a year with a 7% annual return compounded over 25 years…. (Author counts his fingers and strains… then uses a calculator.)
Nothing over that period of time would be 812,117 dollars and 64 cents!
Am I doing a good selling nothing? Maybe. Will you buy into buying nothing? Probably not. But fret not. Most don’t. This is for the different. The slightly weird. The slightly free.
