Upgrades
Posted on October 23, 2006 14 Comments
My little brother served as house-sitter for me during a recent week-long vacation to California. When I arrived back home, he was filled with helpful suggestions on how my apartment could be better.
“The remote control for the bedroom TV sticks. It’s too hard to change channels. Also, the TV buzzes when it’s turned on. You should really just get a whole new TV in there.”
“I had to go home to watch the Bears game on my HD TV. Did you know the entire country will have to own HDTVs by 2009? You might as well buy an HDTV now, before the prices skyrocket. Once 2009 gets closer, everyone will be buying one and the prices might go up.”
Ummmm… Bro? Both of my TVs still work.
It’s worth noting that my brother works at Best Buy. However, his attitude towards new technology is one I no longer share. Sure, I would love to have a huge plasma-screen HDTV in both rooms, and I’d love to buy a new TV just because I need a new remote. But how can I justify buying new stuff when my old stuff still works? It’s going to break eventually. What does it matter if I keep using it until then? I’ll just be making more waste for the planet and spending my money unnecessarily (for the time being).
My brother’s perceptions about new technology can be applied to all consumer goods. Why keep the old one when you can have the new? For that matter, this attitude goes beyond technology and consumer goods. In today’s world, this rationality applies to relationships and marriages as well. Upgrades are the new American standard. (OK, that’s a big leap. But weirdly true, right?)
I for one am bucking the trend. Granted, I won’t be doing my duty to stimulate the economy by purchasing new TVs in the short term, but isn’t it fiscally more responsible and better for the economy overall if I save that money and grow it in hopes of spending it on bigger, more substantial purchases later on? Say, a house, for instance? Or shares of a company? (Admittedly, I’m guessing that’s the case here. Can anyone back me up?)
So I won’t have the coolest new stuff in my house. I’m OK with that, as long as it works.
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14 Responses to “Upgrades”
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October 23rd, 2006 @ 6:49 pm
“Enough”
There’s always something more or better you could be getting and one of the big tricks to budgeting and life satisfaction is realizing when you have enough already. Bravo for you!
Besides, now he knows what to get you for Christmas/Hanukkah.
October 23rd, 2006 @ 8:34 pm
Price of TVs to go up? Not likely. When HDTVs are the only TVs being sold anymore they will be just as cheap are regular TVs are now. Pretty close anyway.
October 23rd, 2006 @ 10:22 pm
Hahahahaha Nicole! I do the SAME thing!!
I’m really careless and break a lot of accessories and electronics all the time, but being handy, some superglue/tape and I usually manage to fix things to look as good as they did before. It’s not that I can’t afford newer and better things, it’s that I can’t stand the waste…it’s working right?
And I find that this attitude comes from my parents before I went to college- it’s not like we didn’t have the money, it’s just that its such a waste of money when we could be saving it for something better- especially when we weren’t experiencing major discomfort with the item in question….but with MY little brother, it’s just the opposite, he’s always gonna replace the whole thing from the getgo…I dunno where the values they inculcated in me went with him…
Lastly- when I lived with my parents, it was in the Middle East. It’s easy there to find repair shops for every little thing- shoes, electronics (big AND small), suitcases, fake jewellery etc…here in Chicago, I’m finding it impossible to find those little shops unless I go down to Devon or something like that…(and if fact, you could take your remote control down there if you were so inclined…I’m sure somebody would fix it..) but why is it so hard in non-ethnic neighbourhoods?
October 24th, 2006 @ 3:37 am
Completely agree. I might REALLY want a new ipod, but the mini is still going strong, even if it’s dated.
Note: the nano was introduced 3 weeks after I purchased the mini. If I buy a nano tomorrow, something else is bound to come out for the holidays.
October 24th, 2006 @ 3:59 am
I am the last hold out for the ipod. The reason I never bought one when they first came out is because I thought, mmhhmmmm they are going to chnge it in a very short time. so far I have been right. I will continue waiting until I do not have more pressing things to do with my money. An ipon is a want not a need.
October 24th, 2006 @ 1:44 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with your attitude of getting the best value from your purchases. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I take it a step further too. I have made a point to learn how to repair certian goods (usually not anything considered a consumable good). I will make every attempt to increase the life of a product unless the cost of parts purhcased over the life of the product is greater than 50% of its purchase price. past that – replacements are cost-effective.
October 24th, 2006 @ 1:59 pm
Oh man, I just had a flash of me trying to fix my remote control, and let me tell ya, it wasn’t pretty. Hee-hee.
October 24th, 2006 @ 4:28 pm
Let me guess your brother is younger by a few years? My younger brother is exactly the same way. He’s the most impulsive person I know, he’s always getting the latest and greatest (he’s so excited about the Playstation 3, b/c apparently #2 is SOO last year.)
Ahh brothers.
And interestingly enough my tv remote is currently taped together and he always tells me… get a new remote already!
October 24th, 2006 @ 11:32 pm
My primary TV is so old it doesn’t even HAVE a remote, or cable hookups for that matter. I have an adapter connected to it or I’d be screwed. Everybody laughs when they see it and tell me I need a new one. I tell them the same thing – “It works fine, why should I buy a new one?” To be honest, I am waiting for the day it dies. Then I can switch to the also out-dated TV (with attached VCR!) my friend left me when she moved out of town. LOL…at least it has a remote.
Oh, and people are shocked to find that I don’t have a DVD player either.
BTW you can buy a new (universal) remote at Best Buy…ask your brother to get you one
October 25th, 2006 @ 3:05 am
I fully agree. If it’s worth fixing something, do it.
However, some things really are easier to replace instead of fixing. My old computer would have cost around 200 to fix and a new one was only a few hundred more.
It’s important to look at life cost of an item not just immeditate cost.
October 25th, 2006 @ 3:45 am
Being surrounded by that kind of technology 5 days a week for hours can also work on your brain and you feel you HAVE to buy it….
October 25th, 2006 @ 6:06 pm
No repair stores because American labor is expensive compared to the foreign labor that assembled the item. Therefore, it is rarely worth it to fix the item…. cheaper to get a new one unless the repair is very minor or the item very expensive or built in the developed world (e.g. cars).
I keep things until they really become non-useful and don’t have much stuff (no TV for example).
October 26th, 2006 @ 3:39 am
Good to see you back
I totally agree with you – yes, HDTV’s look cool, along with other stuff out there, and when I go to my (younger) sister’s house, she and her hubby have the newest large screen TV as well as other assorted gadgets, plus the big house, the luxury cars, Pottery Barn furnished house, and perfectly dressed kids. And did I mention she’s up to her eyeballs in debt?
My DH finally replaced our 12 year old TV, I have an iPod shuffle, my kids share their clothes, we’re content in our cozy (read small) home, and we will be debt free (except the mortgage) in 2 years. I’ll take my simple life minus the gadgets any day!
August 20th, 2011 @ 1:54 am
[...] My brother, a sales manager at Best Buy, has been telling me for years to get a new TV (see exhibit A, but from 2006), but I always rejected the idea. My TV worked. Therefore, I had no need for a fancy new flat [...]