I have been discussing with DeanPaul and others about this collecting mind frame most of us have. I am 40, and watching my kids grow into adolescents and am moving into what I consider to be the prime of my life now (YES, I have finally started to mature and grow up! It started in my 30's, and I am really serious that I think that most men do not really begin to mature until their mid 30's). Anyway, over the last 2 years, I have really began to re-think how I feel about collecting. For example, to be honest, I have been married for 17 years, and for the first 9 years, I was going to collect regardless of how my wife felt about it. That began to change around 32 and I realized that hiding my collecting, or being deceptive about it, just so I could do it, was just as unhealthy as friends who have to be part of several softball leagues regardless of what the time commitment, money etc does to their relationship. So I changed. I was open, upfront, and found other avenues (plasma donations, or used certain % of my bonuses) to raise money for my collecting outside of taking money out of our family budget and savings/investing. Now I find that even with my wife's support, great communications, that if I really miss something, even a figure or something I really wanted, it is not the end of life, and I can move on without it. That is what I mean from being able to be a non-completist and loose collector; for me it brings real freedom.
So here goes my questions.
1) Why do you collect?
2) Has your collecting ever done damage to those you love?
3) Is collecting somethiing you could stop today if you had to in order to save a relationship?
4) Have you changed how you collect and in what way?
5) How do you fund your collecting?
6) What or for whom would you stop collecting for and why?
Feel free to not answer, answer only a few, or answer all the questions.
