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Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#41

Post by SkyMarshal »

rstocker99 wrote: post #20

1) Books. A number of years ago when the startup I worked for got acquired my wife suggested that I go out and buy myself something nice to celebrate. After wandering around looking for something fun to buy and not finding anything that excited me I eventually bought myself a $10 book. 2) Things that save me time and make my life more convenient. Often this means services vs. products e.g. paying someone to do work a…

"In general I'd rather have less stuff but really enjoy what I have."

Hear hear. Less, durable, long-lasting high quality things > more cheap crap.

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#42

Post by jobeyonekenobi »

Books - yes, the physical kind. Although this has to be calmed down a bit, because I can only get through about 2 a week, but they make me feel very wealthy indeed.

Food - We have an excellent butchers in the town, and it's game season, so I am looking forward to getting a brace of Partridge and cooking something up.

Travel - it really does expand the mind. I did not realise how educated I had become from being 'dragged' away 5 times a year by my Mum. Even if I can only go 100 miles away for a weekend, it's still wonderful.

And the deviation from everything else I have read so far on here:

Exercise: I really value the money I spent on my MTB. I love my Bouldering gear (shoes, crash mat and chalk really), and I wouldn't be without going to Muay Thai twice a week. Doing all of this makes me feel like I have more of a rounded life - Yeah, I get to be sedentary for 14 hours at a time tweeking stuff on various VM's, but I also get to test my body to (what feels like) its limits, and I get physical camaraderie from the boxing, or the biking that just isn't the same from a book.

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#43

Post by liljimmytables »

"What is the right price for some of the items you value?" This question has changed its meaning for me in recent months, as I'm saving up to fund some {pre-,}incubation work in the new year. Ordinary things like "a shiny new phone" through to "getting the roof fixed" are now being framed in terms of a week's work at minimum wage. So far there have been very few things as important as a week's work, and as a result the things I love are being fulfilled in slightly strange ways. I now know a whole load about quality homebrewing. My music collection is filling out with all the albums I never got around to buying in my teens (thank you, charity shops). And buying new gadgets has been replaced with writing a few apps and revving the firmware. It's made me more aware that I don't really want _that_ book or _that_ device, but that I will be content with anything that stimulates me and makes me feel richer in the areas I care about. And on the whole, "you could do a week's work for that" has been the perfect whip to keep my tech covetousness at bay.

If this post reads smug or pious it wasn't my intention, you can bet I will be right off the wagon as soon as the new project is up and running...

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#44

Post by djm »

Here are a few of my handy tips to help you decide whether you should go ahead and buy that new X:

(1) Think about cost in terms of the work you had to do to buy it, not just the sale price. You are (most often) buying X with post-tax income so add your tax back on.

(2) Think about the opportunity cost of making the purchase, or "what can't I afford if I buy X?"

(3) Consider whether you are just buying X because it is a status object and whether there is a cheaper alternative (do you really need that merc when you can get from a->b in a honda? and so on).

In choosing what things are important to spend money on I'd generally echo others comments - people looking back over their lifetimes tend to value experiences they had more than junk they bought so spend your money buying experiences.

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#45

Post by andrewingram »

danilocampos wrote: post #28

Experiences and adventure: Blowing a pile of money to go somewhere new is always worth it. The memories are priceless and occasionally the experience helps me redefine what I thought possible for myself. The right price is whatever I can scrape together to make this happen. (Trip to Europe, basic gear for camping, a tank of gas or two for a roadtrip.) Plus standard geek staples: iPhone, solid computer for coding, wri…

I totally agree with the experiences thing. Assuming you're not saving up for a house or something, what better thing to spend your money on than a new experience?

A lot of people suddenly become frugal when confronted with the price tag of an amazing holiday, but are perfectly happy blowing £50 on a night of drinking. It always seems like a false economy to me.

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#46

Post by prawn »

rstocker99 wrote: post #20

1) Books. A number of years ago when the startup I worked for got acquired my wife suggested that I go out and buy myself something nice to celebrate. After wandering around looking for something fun to buy and not finding anything that excited me I eventually bought myself a $10 book. 2) Things that save me time and make my life more convenient. Often this means services vs. products e.g. paying someone to do work a…

I'm similar. Convenience. Fine dining. Travel experiences.

But I'd add cookware to the list - pains me to see people struggle along with cheap and shoddy knives, small chopping boards and weak pots and pans.

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#47

Post by auxbuss »

metamemetics wrote: post #36
patrickaljord wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu user here. Wireless, video, sleep and hibernate work too and I never spend time tweaking anything.

Just spent a lot of time today tweaking ubuntu 10.04 to work with intel wireless :/ Also the proprietary ATI graphics drivers the OS recommended I installed caused all sorts of problems with sleep\hibernate\freezing. Not really a linux problem as the default non-proprietary drivers I switched back to actually work great, but the OS did literally give me an icon reminder telling me to do what caused the problem. Also…

Gnome Do is a little treasure that needs as much exposure as it can get. It completely changes one's interaction with the OS. No more hunting around for apps in the menus. No more using the menus. Reduced use of the mouse.

Gnome Do is an all round boost to productivity.

Re: Ask HN: What do you perceive as worth spending money on?

#50

Post by elblanco »

1) Something I need. Clothes, house, food. I try not to skimp on those things, I buy decent clothes, eat good food, live in a nice house. I always know that if times are tough, I can scale these back easily, but these things always get paid for first.

2) Something I want, but only if it performs its principle function correctly, operates reliably, and is cost effective. I'll buy a Honda over any Mercedes for example. (I could cars in this category even though I need one for transport because I could always go el cheapo used car for my actual needs).

3) If I have time or opportunity, luxury items, but only one or two per year -- they don't have to conform too tightly to the cost effective idea but I have to make sure I can use it. If I buy it and have no time to mess with it, then it's a waste. These usually take the form of travel once or twice a year.

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