The Value of Your Dollar.

2/23/200810:23:29 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Value

Regardless of the current economy or the value of the American Dollar against the British Pound or the Euro, your money is the value you make it. I recently started considering the purchase of a new notebook computer. Little did I know that the value of my dollars was in what I truly needed in a computer versus what my instincts were marketed to in needing. We normally strive for the biggest and best regardless of expense. Consider vehicles (gas mileage) and college (tuition). When they can easily replace the other with little value displaced. Purpose of use versus the underlying reputation of having the biggest and best to prove something to someone.

If the computer manufacturer had their way I would spend the maximum amount of money on a brand new notebook that would be outdated and out-modeled with the latest and greatest the first day I used it. I would buy a computer that could do anything and everything regardless of my intended use for it. Technology is incentivized these days especially in the market for computers. Buy all of these certain upgrades and receive ANOTHER free printer or last year's edition of the latest and greatest digital camera. Are these incentives necessary and do they bring a greater value to what you originally intended on purchasing? I needed a new notebook with updated technology, I was never seeking a printer but the incentive tries to offer me more value...or does it devalue the notebook I was seeking? Its always important to consider the overall value of what you need versus what you are offered. If you are offered more value than what your dollar is worth (to you) then you've got a steal. But if you are spending your valuable dollars on features that aren't useful to you for your intentions than the value is wasted.

The value of the technologies you invest in should be considered in respect to the business you can produce from it or what you get out of the expenditure. I may spend a lot more than the base price for a notebook computer but the upgrades and/or the add-ons that are valuable to me allows my work to be more productive and effective. So it isn't the functionality of the technology  but what I use it for that creates its value to me.

When you spend money on any new technology consider the value of the dollars you spent on it, the value you've given to the money you've spent. Not the current markets value. Your hard earned money in business is all the blood, sweat and tears you put into achieving and earning each and every dollar. Don't just get your money out of an expenditure, get your value out of it. Get the value you place on your earnings out of each and every purchase you make, for business or otherwise. The meaning is in the value not in the dollar.

Consider a picture of a camel in a Helux Toyota truck. If this image is too hard to picture in your mind, feel free to image search "camel in truck" to find one. Would a super duty truck be of value to a driver with this kind of cargo? The value of this truck is in its specific use. If you are in the camel transport business this is a high value product!