A few months ago, I came across the term “aspirational clutter.” This is when you keep stuff that you are not using. Why? You have a vision of your using it in the future, so that’s your motivation for hanging on to it. This could be some old clothes that you hope will fit again some day. It could be some exercise equipment you have, and one day you are going to start a program to get in shape.
It occurred to me that apirational clutter could also apply to personal finance. In my case, I had a yearly subscription for some software that I last used in 2022. This was a video editing program for my hledger fan YouTube channel. I kept the subscription because the thought of making more hledger fan vidoes is a warm, positive one.
However, it was time to let this aspirational yearly expense go. If I decide to make videos in the future, I will either start up my old subscription to the software again or I will find a different video editing program. But in the meantime, I don’t need to be paying every year for something that I am not currently using.
In short, it wasn’t easy, but dropping the yearly subscription was the right choice. I remind myself that I am dropping only the expense, not the aspiration of making future videos.
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