How to Justify Buying a Laptop

Technology can be pretty expensive. This is especially true if you’re buying an Apple product. But can it be justified? Absolutely. But this is only really true if you commute a lot. Let me explain.

Commuting is an epic waste of time. I know it may feel like you’re doing something but in reality, you’re not. Commuting is simply something that get you posed to do something. You haven’t really done anything yet. In fact, you’re actually worse off by commuting. That’s because you’re spending personal money to do this.

But… what if you could be productive during that commute. If you’re a business owner, you know you can rake in money pretty much any time – day or night. But whether or not you’re a business owner, you can still be productive.

A laptop also offers more capabilities than a smartphone – not to mention more screen space. These two reasons alone make opting for a new laptop a good decision. So what exactly can you do with your new laptop…

Work

Even if you have a ‘9-5’ you can still accomplish work outside of the office in most cases. I say most cases because some government jobs, for instance, don’t like you conducting work outside of a secure environemnt.

But for most jobs, you can get ahead or get caught up. This is handy for many reasons. If you have a doctors appointement or something during the day, that won’t matter. You’ll still have put in your 8 hours. Or maybe you want to get ahead on a project while you’re feeling pumped about it. Then go ahead and do it on your new laptop. A promotion will easy pay for it.

Video Editing

It seems like everyone is filming these days. Maybe you just got back form a vacation where you used a GoPro to film yourself rock climbing. Or maybe you just celebrated your daughter’s first birthday. No matter the reason, a laptop is great for video editing. Tablets and smartphones are horrendous for accomplishing such tasks.

Writing

Do you have a blog? Do you like to keep a personal diary? Do you freelance write? A laptop is the resource you should get. It’s nice when you have a thought to be able to quickly flip open your modern day notebook and get it down quickly.

Video Chatting

Smartphones have great cameras nowadays. But laptops typically still beat them. This means you can do higher quality video chats from a clear lens. Your audience will appreciate it.

Leisure Time

Sometimes you just want to hang out. Maybe it’s on a plane, at your boyfriend’s house or while riding as a passenger in a car. A laptop is a great medium for doing all sorts of things online. Tablets are great but sometimes you really want a keywboard. Consider a convertable notebook if you so desire.

Reading on a Good Sized Screen Without Another Device

Personally, I like a big screen. Maybe you do as well. But I really hate the idea of having to buy yet another product to read books from. And reading from a smartphone is nearly impossible for much time. So there comes in the laptop. It’s a nice problem solver in these events. If reading from your old laptop screen has bothered you in the past, a trick is to adjust the screen brightness to close to the ambient light. That means if it’s dark around you, turn down the screen brightness. If it’s bright outside, turn it up. Some computers will match this for you.

Keeping Money in Mind

Let’s say a laptop will cost you $500. Let’s think of that in terms of hours worked. How much do you get paid an hour? $15? $20? $30? $50? $200? See how many hours you’ll have to work to pay off the device. If it seems justifiable, pull the trigger. It’s almost like getting a free laptop. Because if you didn’t have the computer with you at these times, you couldn’t get any good work done.

Replace Your Beater

Maybe you’re reading this post because you already have a laptop. It’s just slow. This is another instance where we need to consider our time. Is it really worth your time to wait for a slow computer. I know personally I was running an old machine. It would take forever to open and close programs. It was incredibly annoying. And because it was annoying, I’d get distracted and angry. This led to many hours of lost productivity. If you get paid a decent rate, you can’t afford to run a slow machine. If you get paid bad wages, work like heck until you can afford a good machine. After all, a good laptop is cool. Don’t you want to be cool?

I hope this post has helped you rationalize buying a new laptop. It’s not a huge expense in the grand scheme of things.

Bio:

Will Lipovsky is a personal finance freelance writer and internet marketer. His most embarrassing moment has been saying to a Microsoft executive, “I’ll just Google it.” You can get in touch with Will at FirstQuarterFinance.com.