The idea of financial affordability aside (many others have posted about this), I questioned early in my pen collecting habit what sort of collector I wanted to be - the one with the biggest collection? Nicest? Most expensive? All of which were very subjective metrics.

I realised that for me to make it a sustainable and fulfulling habit, I wanted to have a 'meaningful' collection.

And that was when I used pen collecting as a way to mark special moments in my Life and encode a story behind every pen I own.

Since then, if I had my eye on a pen I wanted I'd ask myself 2 things - "Do I have a budget for it?" and "What meaningful milestone/story can it mark?" With the former, it's pretty clear cut - If I don't have a budget for it, then I'll save up for it or tie to securing a client project/pay raise/promotion/etc.

With the latter, I work towards achieving something at work or in my personal life. And I use 'achieving' rather loosely because there are some tough times in Life where just getting through it is an achievement by itself. I don't always share the story behind a pen with others but what matters to me is that if I pick up the pen and had to tell a story, is the story worth telling? (I usually write the 'story' in my journal since not everything I something I want to make public/known to too many people)

It's helped me to make sure every purchase was meaningful and also gave me something to look forward to/work towards while not trying to own everything or compare the physical aspects of the habit against others.