“Do not value money for any more nor any less than its worth; it is a good servant but a bad master.” ~Alexandre Dumas
Let me get this out there; my view of money is this: money is an analogue for things. That is, $20 is ten pounds of ground beef. That is, $10,000 is a car of varying quality and vintage. I spend a lot of my time working for my money (that is, my ability to buy things). I want that time to be worth as much as possible. Therefore, something I have learned in the last few years – it has been a hard lesson: buying the best can save money over the long haul.
That said, I don’t do this with everything I buy, I have a system.
When to buy less than the best:
- You will only use it minimally. If you are on vacation and you cannot take it home and it only needs to serve one purpose. Buy as cheap as you can get away with. Or here’s an example: I use a shop-vac about once every three months. I didn’t buy the best in this area, I bought an easily stowed 1 gallon shop-vac. It works great for what I need it to do.
- It has built-in obsolescence. Computers are an example of this. I don’t buy the best. Every three to five years, I buy whatever refurbished Mac they have available for $1,000 in the apple store. I have been doing this for more than a decade and it has served me well. Instead of buying the cheapest or the best, I have found a happy medium that has saved me thousands over the years.
I am sure there are more areas, but these two are my hard-and-fast rules. How do I decide when to go big? That is, when do I buy the best?
When to buy the best:
- You will use it until you die. Two years ago, I bought a turntable that cost $1,000. Many people would pass out buying a piece of stereo equipment that cost that much. I knew I would use it forever. I knew it would cost me just a few dollars for each year that plan to use it. I have a huge record collection that benefitted greatly from its purchase. Am I embarrassed when I talk about it? Sometimes, but I don’t think I would take it back if given the chance.
- Clothing. There are things that never go out of style: Brooks Brothers oxford shirts, Ray Ban Wayfarers and Aviators, Polo shirts. Sure these aren’t the top of the high-end market, but they are the best in that they never go out of style, are slow to wear out, and their cost per year of ownership is phenomenally low.
- Tools. Craftsman is worth it. You buy it and it is guaranteed to never break. I have returned tools to Sears that were twenty years old that I had abused and they took them back.
- It has vastly superior quality. If the oven you are going to buy has such a high level of quality that it will not break down or need replacing until long after the cheap one has gone to the dump, buy it. This has ecological implications as well. Don’t forget about that.
Once again, there are many more examples and rules. These are just the ones I live by.
Buying the Best as Frugality
Let me get this out there; my view of money is this: money is an analogue for things. That is, $20 is ten pounds of ground beef. That is, $10,000 is a car of varying quality and vintage. I spend a lot of my time working for my money (that is, my ability to buy things). I want that time to be worth as much as possible. Therefore, something I have learned in the last few years – it has been a hard lesson: buying the best can save money over the long haul.
That said, I don’t do this with everything I buy, I have a system.
When to buy less than the best:
I am sure there are more areas, but these two are my hard-and-fast rules. How do I decide when to go big? That is, when do I buy the best?
When to buy the best:
Once again, there are many more examples and rules. These are just the ones I live by.
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