The best way to keep your pride in check.....

 The most effective way to remain humble that I have found is to subject yourself to the annual garage sale. We live in a community that decides one Saturday every year to allow all the residents to sell priceless items that have been accumulated over time to other residents (and every one else who speaks Spanish) through the time honored tradition of a garage sale. It's a big deal. People prepare their displays on Friday hoping it doesn't rain overnight because they want to be ready at daylight. And normally the first customer arrives well before then, somewhere between the delivery of the morning paper and the first cup of coffee.
  Now is when the humility begins in earnest. Sure, you may have paid a couple of hundred dollars for that suit that doesn't quite fit anymore but in the world of the weekend Fred Sanford crowd it's worth about $5 cash. Your grandmother gave you a silver serving tray that is priceless, well not quite, it will fetch you a dollar. That lifelong dream of finally getting in great shape has been gathering dust in the form of a Bowflex or some other do-it-yourself fitness machine may have cost you an arm and a leg but garage sale value runs about 10 bucks if you find the right motivated buyer. Furniture is one of those things you buy with an emotional attachment, memories may be contained in that leather sofa but you need to get over it. Sure you made payments all the way through the last decade to buy it but you're going to get less than $20 to get it off your driveway. It doesn't take long to realize that what you thought was great isn't worth all that much.
  But the true self esteem kick in the crotch comes in the form of negotiation. How can you think you have succeeded in life when an elderly lady staggers out of her 1971 Buick and tells you that 50 cents is too much for that painting you drop a hundred bucks on last year? Or when that stainless steel cookware that brought you such joy when you bought it is reduced to $4 because the couple that just bought them negotiated like they were on Shark Tank? I've actually had someone offer me one dollar for some shirts I was selling. Nice dress shirts that had brand names. Not a dollar per shirt mind you, five shirts for a dollar. Sold them right along with what was left of my pride at this point. Factoring in the gas I didn't use going to Goodwill, winner.
  I really think it's time to change this into a new reality show, Garage Swap. We take a couple in the suburbs and switch their garage with another couple who lives in another country. How cool would that be? Get rid of all your junk and get a surprise from somewhere around the world. I wonder if the Chinese have the same crap in their garage? Probably not because they built all the crap and sold it to us in the first place. Can you imagine the thrill someone in Darfur might get when they opened the door and found the refrigerator in my garage? Sure once they found out it needed electricity to work (even then it was broke) the joy would evaporate quicker than a fallen dictator but a little happiness is better than none. I know someone Siberia would do cartwheels or at least snow angels when they found the lawn mower and leaf blower. This idea can't be any worse than the Real Housewives of where ever the hell they find crazy people.
  Everybody has gone through at least one garage sale in their life. Hopefully one was enough for you to realize the value of a tax deduction is greater than the $20 you will garner while finding out that you and your stuff just ain't all that. Keep your stuff in the garage and feel good about yourself, it's worth the money.

Till next.....