I have been heavily involved in closing out a contract at work last month, hence 13-14 hours a day, for a month was a norm. In our industry competition is fierce, hence no overtime, no bonuses, just hard work.
Thinking about family finances made me realize that every new appliance means that sooner or later it will require a replacement and you have to start saving for it straight away.
Current story:
# | Item | # per family | Cost per Item | # replacement every years | Over 10 years, USD |
1 | Mobile phone | 2 | 750 | 3 | 4,500 |
2 | Camcorder | 1 | 2,500 | 5 | 5,000 |
3 | Camera | 1 | 2,000 | 5 | 4,000 |
4 | Laptop | 2 | 2,500 | 5 | 10,000 |
5 | Car | 1 | 35,000 | 10 | 35,000 |
6 | Miscellaneous | 10,000 | |||
Total | 70,000 |
It means that to replace them we have to save about 600 USD a month, just to maintain current position. This is just a reminder that every new buy will cost you over the lifetime, just to keep it the same.
If you stretched the car out another 5 years and cut the cost of the car by $5000 you would need to save $140 less per month to stay the same. This does not even count cutting the cost of the laptops, my last one was half the price and a great model or buying a cheaper phone (how are you spending $750 on a phone).
ReplyDeleteYou can save money on the laptop. A $600 laptop from Dell will be fine for 2-3 years unless you do gaming or Photoshop. The car won't lose all its value by year 10 so actually you can say $25,000 to $30,000. So, it's not quite as bleak as it seems but it's good that you're overestimating by a bit so you know you won't undersave!
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