For as long as I can remember my family has owned two cars. One for my wife and one for me. We recently decided to get rid of my car. We are officially a one-car family. When making this decision, a lot of what-ifs tried to stop us.
What if our only car breaks down?
What if we both need to go somewhere important?
What if I have to return to the office?
What if there is an emergency and we need a vehicle right away?
These what-ifs are mostly emotionally driven. Fear based. Our mind running towards comfort — towards blending in with those around us. We were not going to get rid of a vehicle without addressing the what-ifs. So, we consciously answered them, one by one.
What if our only car breaks down? We can buy a new one.
What if we need to go somewhere important? Uber.
What if I have to return to the office? My wife and I can discuss it once this happens. We would have a few creative options to make it work.
What if there is an emergency and we need a vehicle right away? “Just in case” is not a great reason to keep anything in life. There are lots of neighbors or nearby family that would lend us their vehicle in a true emergency.
Even still, truth be told, our life would not be much different if we had kept the second car. We did not owe any money on the vehicle. We had room to park it in the garage. It still had the ability to get us from point A to point B.
But getting rid of our second car did have some advantages:
You only need to be duped by one what-if to keep unnecessary things too long. When considering getting rid of a major item, it might be better to ask a different set of what-ifs:
What if?