Are you materialistic?

To answer the question on "being materialistic", my first inclination was to say No I am not materialistic. Then I thought it really depends on what we define as "materialistic". According to my trusted old Oxford dictionary, "materialism" means "tendency to prefer material possessions and physical comfort to spiritual values".

Hmmm ... I ain't a spiritual person and I do enjoy physical comfort and, to some extend, material possessions. So, sadly, the answer has to be Yes I am materialistic. In fact, if this definition goes, 99% of the world population is materialistic (unless you are nuns or monks). :P Ok. OK .. I am arguing semantics here which my lecturer used to get quite irritated with me. But I do so enjoy tweaking his nose then although I suspect he secretly loves to be tweaked! Hahaha ... Alrighty, that’s neither here nor there. So back to the topic at hand.

Since we have established that 99% of the world population is materialistic, then let's talk about degree of materialism instead. How materialistic are you? I enjoy having the good things in life but I can live without them and still be happy. :) I am not much into designer labels or keeping up with the Joneses. For example, I am not into Rolexes ... I don't even know how the range of models look like. One classic or designer watch looks very much like the next to me. Therefore, the thought of paying such a huge some of money for a watch, whose main function is to tell time, seems well, quite ridiculous! :p My friends talk about owning LV designer handbags and whatever other designer labels. I can't tell an imitation from the real thing. In any case, they all look ugly to me. Hahaha ...

My purchase of "branded" products are probably those technical/ electrical ones because I am too lazy to find out more information about the stuff and rather depend on a trusted person's advice or a trusted brand name i.e. buying panasonic compared to pensonic, etc. :P In actual fact, I am a marketeer's nightmare consumer! If women wise up to all the marketing gimmicks, I'd be out of a job. Thank god for small mercies ... and gullible folks ... ;) Hahaha ... just kidding!

My one true weakness is travelling. I think I can give up owning a property or a car in lieu of travelling somewhere. In fact, I did just that in my younger days. (Oh dear ... feels so old now. :P) Mom used to complain that I fritter away my money on travels instead of investing in property. I told her different people have different priorities in life. “Different strokes for different folks.” For me, knowledge are treasures none can steal. :)

Bottom line, life is not about money, assets and gold … although many would disagree. We can't take our properties or gold bullions to the grave. Someone once wrote it's not how long you live but HOW you live that "dash". (Meaning that if on my tombstone it's written "1910 - 2000", what's important is that dash "-"!)

Therefore it is not a matter of how materialistic you are but how you view and handle materialism. Am I making sense?