a few months ago, i was in a meeting at work. my supervisor was sitting nearby.
“i’ve been having some problems with my back”, he commented something to that effect.

“oh. why is that?” some of us inquired.

“because”, he replied, as he reached for something in his pocket. “my huge wallet!” as he plunked down an average sized folding leather black wallet on the table.

except that the wallet was HUGE. it was stuffed like crazy with papers and money and cards and gosh know what else. it was so bulgy that it might eventually get round! i suspected it must have been quite heavy.

why do some people carry such crazy giant wallets?? what is the point of carrying around the receipts from your purchases from the past month for another month or more in your wallet? must you really carry all those business cards you’ve collected? do you actually regularly use the bank account cards, rewards cards, etc. that you have been carrying around for years?

surely having an extra 5 pounds on only one side of your back pants pocket isn’t healthy? every morning when you pick up your wallet from the dresser, do you actually force that thing to fit into the pocket??  how is it that the pocket hasn’t been torn off yet?

i found an article online on potential health problems associated with gigantic wallets:

“Wallet sciatica is the medical term for leg and back pain caused by sitting on a wallet for too long, causing the pelvis and spine to contort slightly and putting pressure on the sciatic nerve.

It might seem slight, but chiropractor Micheil Hanczaryk said the effects add up from the pelvis and spine getting thrown off by what’s essentially a speed bump on your backside.

“It’s like if you tried to walk but put quarter- or half-inch shims in one of your shoes … something’s going to go the wrong way,” he said. “Any amount of stuff back there is no good because even a little wallet will cause you to shift, but the bigger the wallet is, the more of a problem we have.”

yikes!

sort of as a joke, in response to my supervisor’s comment i responded,“maybe you can get a second identical or similar wallet, take out half of the weight from your first wallet, and carry the second wallet in your other back pocket.  then you can be more balanced?”

i found it hilarious that i found this ’solution’ has already been similarly implemented, according to a post online:

“Do you remember George Costanza’s mammoth wallet? It was so enormous, he had to stuff napkins in his other back pocket to keep himself balanced when sitting down.”

when you go to the store, can you actually find anything in your wallet, and quickly at that?

when i come home, almost daily i take out anything i won’t need to use the next day from my wallet — receipts, business cards, extra cash, miscellaneous pieces of paper, mega change. in my wallet, i only regularly carry the following:

• my main checking atm debit card account
• emergency credit card
• motorcycle insurance card
• health insurance card
• dental insurance card
• somewhere between $1-40 in cash (usually less than $20)
• some change for meters, etc.
• motorcycle association towing card

and that’s about it.  no pictures, no store memberships or gift cards, not 10 credit cards.  no business cards from colleagues 5 conferences ago.

when i know that the SO and i will be going to a particular business, then i bust out a relevant card for it (if available), and take it along with me that day.  some examples:

• costco membership card (in case the SO misplaces his somehow)
• jo-ann fabrics’ coupons
• local public library card
• a shopping/errands list

otherwise, these type of things are on my desk, on my whiteboard, or in my drawers.

i’m relatively organized and neat, but i’m also lazy.  i think that is actually one of the reasons i prefer not to drag so much around.  i dislike dragging stuff around if i don’t have to.  perhaps it comes from being a motorcyclist and finding less to carry around less of a burden.

for a while last year, i used a minimalist jimi wallet that i received as a birthday gift.  before that, i used a minimalist leather kawasaki motorcyclist wallet, which i sadly lost in southern california during a trip.  before that, i had been using a simple, cheap, plastic, clear white business card holder (maybe fit about 12 cards?) that i had bought in japan.  at some point in between, i was using binder clips or rubber bands (which meant no carrying change for me during those times).

currently, i use a black vinyl inexpensive simple ‘normal’ wallet until i find something that is similar to my lost motorcyclist wallet that i can really like.

if you’re looking for a minimalist wallet, check out the responses from a thread started at 43folders, what’s your favorite minimalist wallet? slim wallets don’t have to be expensive at all, while doctor visits or prescriptions to enormous-wallet-induced-back-problems might later be!

in the secrets to a super-slim wallet, the author offers excellent advice on how to slim down.

there are other advantages though, to slimming your wallet down:

• less complexity
• less time wasted scrounging around for stuff
• minimizing financial resources (eg, from not having (m)any credit cards) may minimize your spending!

what about you?  what is your wallet situation like?

this article is part of the wellness wednesdays series.  to receive more entertaining stories and useful advice for your wealth, consider subscribing to the rss feed.