I once had quite an impressive WWI, WWII, and Finnish collection, plus semi-auto 7.62x54r and handguns. I had a library with 14 foot ceilings and floor to ceiling book shelves on two walls. On the other two walls, I had about 70 rifles of various kinds occupying the top 4 feet. The lower sections I had swords from the late 1700's into the early 1800's (mostly Napoleonic or 1812). In the safe I had an NDM-86, PSL, SVT-40, The Firing Line edition M14, rare CZ pistols, Colt revolvers, Swiss pistols (including a true Swiss-made CZ-75), pristine Webley Mk VI in .455, you name it. In looking across my great great grandfather's Colt pocket pistol, the one he carried at 14 at the Battle of Atlanta, I realized that we own nothing in this world, serving merely as caretakers for the brief time we haunt this planet.
At the same time, I came across an antebellum house on 4 acres of land in the middle of nowhere on a lane-and-a-half road with only a handful of people on the entire road - and all of them farmers, preachers, and one retired FBI agent. I sold my collection at auction, never putting two of the same kind of thing on at the same time. God blessed me and many of my auctions took in twice or thrice what I expected. With the pile of money, I got the house.
It needed work, mostly tearing out sheet rock, replacing some crappy louver windows and ugly steel doors, and painting, but has new wiring and plumbing (and I have learned to love pex). The best part is, I own the house. It is mine, free and clear. It is my weekend and summer project - like Gibb's boat - and I go and swing a hammer. It has blueberries, figs, pears, and a pecan orchard already on site. Water is close to the surface (close enough to have a hand pump if I want one) and the road gets perhaps 20 cars on it the whole day. The nearest Walmart is 30 minutes away. The nearest interstate is 45 minutes. The nearest major city is an hour and a half away.
For two years I have worked on this house, taking my time, doing it right. It is just about ready - all I have to do is paint and finish one room. I spend the night there with the kids regularly. The current job I have is to finish building a barn on the foundation of an old dairy barn.
What I have left in my collection are some real high-quality arms. LRB m14, Czech VZ54/91, Finnish M28/76 with original scope and mounts, an X marked Inland M1 Carbine made by Saginaw Steering gear, plus lower-value but utterly useful arms like a Mini-14, Ruger Police Service Six, etc., and some family pieces like a Mossberg 183 .410 that was my grandfathers, then my dad's, and then mine, or said Colt 1849.
There is not a day that passes with me feeling regret on letting those arms go. I can say I have owned them, shot them, and have knowledge of them. Indeed, in some ways, it was liberating, like Bilbo Baggins letting go of the ring on his own. I still have the swords and a Brown Bess for the library, will probably keep them (particularly the spadroon I used to kill a rat with, the only blade I have drawn blood with!).
I am debt free, have two houses (the city one is about to be for sale - it was the house of Bill Walker, the founder of Bill's Dollar Stores), and land in Mississippi and Florida. I drive a beat-up but low-mileage 1978 Ford F100 at the new place. I write books. I smile a lot.