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We are often tempted to push our limits, maximize our opportunities, and not let things go to waste. But another perspective is to build a cushion of excess that we hold in reserve to make our lives less stressful and more pleasant.
Finances
I'll start with the obvious. An emergency fund lets you easily handle the financial impact of many emergencies. Other savings can let you take advantage of unexpected costly opportunities such as attending family reunions, visiting friends who are temporarily located in exotic lands, and taking advantage of business opportunities.
This is the opposite of such strategies as living paycheck to paycheck, maxing out your credit cards, and pulling out all your home equity to renovate.
Physical Skills
Building your aerobic capacity to much higher than you usually use can prevent a heart attack when you shovel that first snowfall. Building up your running and parkour skills beyond what you normally need can help you escape dangerous situations. Or even just let you help your friend move without aching the next day.
This is the opposite of being a desk jockey/couch potato.
(On the other hand, having a little extra weight beyond your absolute minimum healthy weight can also help you survive long-term illnesses.)
Mental Skills
There's some evidence that stretching your brain not only keeps you able to think but can even help you fight off dementia in your old age.
The opposite is having your one career and your one hobby and you are an expert at both so you only ever need to learn tiny minutia to keep up.
Social Skills
There came a point in my grandmother's life when every last one of her friends had died. Can you imagine that? It's not so easy to start over when you're in your eighties. And new friendships are nothing at all like life-long friendships. If only she had been able to keep making friends with younger and younger people, that point when her last life-long friend had died might not have been so brutal.
There are other situations that can call on rarely used skills, too. That's one thing about a lot of jobs - they make you interact with people and in ways you might never interact otherwise. International travel can have this effect, too, when you get to practice being the ignoramus and when you try new skills like haggling.
Space
Keeping some space free means you can bring another book or outfit into the house. It means you can buy way too many rolls of paper towels on sale and not have to store them in the middle of your kitchen floor. It means you can let someone move in while they are visiting or getting back on their feet--and they can have a place to sleep and maybe even a little drawer and closet space.
This is the opposite of cleverly managing to fill every nook and cranny.
Time
Eh, time is part of the space/time continuum; it's obvious what goes in this section.
Clothing
If you have extra clothes that you rarely wear, then you are less like to have stressful emergencies involving funerals, job interviews, (other people's) weddings, formal occasions, and costume parties. Not to mention mysteriously becoming a new size.
The opposite of this is having some work uniforms, some play uniforms, and plenty of space in your closet for toys.
Other
Extra languages can come in handy. Extra books, movies and video games can help when you're sick. Extra bullets help in a revolution. What do you like to stockpile?
Blog entry of the day - Early Retirement Extreme's Increasing your max to avoid the limit, the inspiration for today's post. "For instance, 20 miles on a bicycle in 90F may seem like a deathride. Yet this is only the case if 20 miles or 90F is the limit of peak performance. If peak performance is 100 miles and 105F, then 20 miles and 90F will be easy enough to repeat daily."
Finances
I'll start with the obvious. An emergency fund lets you easily handle the financial impact of many emergencies. Other savings can let you take advantage of unexpected costly opportunities such as attending family reunions, visiting friends who are temporarily located in exotic lands, and taking advantage of business opportunities.
This is the opposite of such strategies as living paycheck to paycheck, maxing out your credit cards, and pulling out all your home equity to renovate.
Physical Skills
Building your aerobic capacity to much higher than you usually use can prevent a heart attack when you shovel that first snowfall. Building up your running and parkour skills beyond what you normally need can help you escape dangerous situations. Or even just let you help your friend move without aching the next day.
This is the opposite of being a desk jockey/couch potato.
(On the other hand, having a little extra weight beyond your absolute minimum healthy weight can also help you survive long-term illnesses.)
Mental Skills
There's some evidence that stretching your brain not only keeps you able to think but can even help you fight off dementia in your old age.
The opposite is having your one career and your one hobby and you are an expert at both so you only ever need to learn tiny minutia to keep up.
Social Skills
There came a point in my grandmother's life when every last one of her friends had died. Can you imagine that? It's not so easy to start over when you're in your eighties. And new friendships are nothing at all like life-long friendships. If only she had been able to keep making friends with younger and younger people, that point when her last life-long friend had died might not have been so brutal.
There are other situations that can call on rarely used skills, too. That's one thing about a lot of jobs - they make you interact with people and in ways you might never interact otherwise. International travel can have this effect, too, when you get to practice being the ignoramus and when you try new skills like haggling.
Space
Keeping some space free means you can bring another book or outfit into the house. It means you can buy way too many rolls of paper towels on sale and not have to store them in the middle of your kitchen floor. It means you can let someone move in while they are visiting or getting back on their feet--and they can have a place to sleep and maybe even a little drawer and closet space.
This is the opposite of cleverly managing to fill every nook and cranny.
Time
Eh, time is part of the space/time continuum; it's obvious what goes in this section.
Clothing
If you have extra clothes that you rarely wear, then you are less like to have stressful emergencies involving funerals, job interviews, (other people's) weddings, formal occasions, and costume parties. Not to mention mysteriously becoming a new size.
The opposite of this is having some work uniforms, some play uniforms, and plenty of space in your closet for toys.
Other
Extra languages can come in handy. Extra books, movies and video games can help when you're sick. Extra bullets help in a revolution. What do you like to stockpile?
Blog entry of the day - Early Retirement Extreme's Increasing your max to avoid the limit, the inspiration for today's post. "For instance, 20 miles on a bicycle in 90F may seem like a deathride. Yet this is only the case if 20 miles or 90F is the limit of peak performance. If peak performance is 100 miles and 105F, then 20 miles and 90F will be easy enough to repeat daily."