Lazy Man and Money

Buyer’s Remorse: Did I Buy The Wrong Computer?

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Last week, I wrote about how I was very successful in working on a $100 laptop. I admit it was a bit of a sensationalistic title. The laptop actually retails for $200… the Black Friday $100 pricing isn’t readily available.

I was surprised to learn that even at the $200 retail price (or the $150 often discounted price), the Asus X205TA is a very useful engine computer. (Thomas the Tank Engine rubs off on you when you have a 1 and 2 year old.)

I had always assumed that a computer that cheap was just good for a half hour here or there if you didn’t have a better option. However, if you have an efficient workflow and don’t require too many processor sensitive applications (most people don’t) you can get by.

I used this computer as my insurance policy while I ordered my next full-time computer. Without it, I would have had to buy whatever was available, which wouldn’t have necessarily been a good deal nor would it have been what I’d necessary want.

It was time to look for a new computer. I quickly narrowed it to computers, the new Dell XPS 13. When it came out in January, I had to highlight it as a way to save money on your next premium windows laptop. Specifically, I wrote, “It took two years, but finally there’s an increase in portability, battery life, and performance, at less money.”

Can you tell I was excited for the computer? The only problem was that my current computer was working well. That’s usually the case until it isn’t.

The competing computer was the ASUS Zenbook UX305FA.

Before I get into the pros and cons of each, I have to give a shout out to the Microsoft Store. They have a $100 off with coupon code “PCGRAD15.” I couldn’t find anyone else discounting either of the machines, making it an exceptional deal right now. In addition, computers from the Microsoft Store come without all the annoying crapware apps that you never use which simply clogs up the system.

I was happy to buy from the Microsoft Store, except their physical store near me was a mall kiosk. It only had 3 or 4 computers available to purchase and neither of these two which should be the most popular options. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggaio Circuit City?

Fortunately, Microsoft’s online store offers extremely cheap shipping options ranging from $16 for next day to free if you can wait 4-5 days. I felt like I could afford the $16 for a few days with extra productivity.

I’ll leave it to the big technology sites to compare and contrast the Dell XPS 13 and the Asus Zenbook UX305FA, but the general consensus of review on both is that they should be on your short-list. The Dell XPS 13 is very customizable, but alas is limited to 4GB of memory at the Microsoft store (unless you want to pay hundreds more for options that you might not want). It comes with 128GB of hard drive space, which for many people is very little. (I off-load most of my data to external hard drives.) Its strengths is that is has an extremely powerful processor and is extremely small due to the design. With the promotion at the Microsoft store, you can get it for $800, plus tax and shipping.

Alternatively, The Zenbook has a slower processor, but 8GB of memory and 256GB of hard drive space. It’s not exactly the same space-saving design, but it is still far above average and weighs about the same. With the same promotion, you can get it for only $600, plus tax and shipping.

I went with the Dell XPS 13.

This is where I flash back to what I wrote about last week about getting by on a cheap computer. Here I am saying how computers are fast enough and you should save money, but I went out and did the exact opposite. I passed on a computer that could have been a better fit with more memory while saving me money.

It’s not a big deal. The Dell XPS 13 is awesome and I am more than happy with it. If I didn’t run a website that focused on these kinds of buying decisions, I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought. It was only when I thought about writing about the purchase did it occur to me that I might have made the wrong decision.

Also, it was a good excuse to write about a great technology deal and how the quality of technology keeps coming up as the price is coming down.

Fun Things You Could Buy with a Million Dollars

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It’s not just the Bare Naked Ladies who play, “If I had a Million Dollars“, I do too. Today, I enlisted the help of Saffery Champness Accountants who who came up with a few ideas on what they could be bought with $1 million. They decided to come up with some of the more fun things you could buy with a million dollars:

Things You Could Buy With a Million Dollars
Things You Could Buy With a Million Dollars (Click for Larger Version)

Let’s play a game. If you had to buy any of these items what would you buy? To make it interesting let’s throw out the one practical item, the house in New York. I think you have to go for the island, right? After that I would go with the the submarine or the airplane. It’s simple, you have to take the appreciating real estate over the depreciating vehicles. The parking space is an interesting combination of frivolity and real estate. It’s still too frivolous for me to rank very high.

After that, I think you have to put the fishing lure, vacuum, bathtub, and necklace into a pile of items that are just ridiculous. However, they have a step up on the brandy that you could consume in a few sittings and have nothing to show for it. The perfume isn’t too far different in that it can be consumed too. It’ll just last a little longer.

Rent-A-Center’s Crazy Commercial Promoting Fiscally Responsibility Fails

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I was watching television the other day and this commercial from Rent-a-Center caught my attention. Go watch the commercial, I’ll wait. Back? Good.

The commercial didn’t catch my attention because the guy wants to buy a 60″ television and his wife is questioning it (I swear). It caught the attention because Rent-A-Center is suggesting that it is a good alternative for those with too many credit card bills that they can’t pay off. How nice of Rent-a-Center to promote fiscal responsibility, right? Well maybe not.

Rent-A-Center’s alternative is to rent you the television at $30 a week. Quick math in my head (more than 50 weeks * $30) shows that it would cost more than $1500 a year. And you can buy this LG 60-Inch Plasma at Amazon for $999 including free shipping. In just 34 weeks, or less than 8 months, you would have owned the TV and been free of any payments.

Rent-A-Center does have a rent-to-own policy. At least the payments won’t continue forever. If you watch the commercial again there’s some very small text at the bottom of the screen explaining the terms. It says that you’ll own the television after 104 weeks for a total costs of $3,118.96. It also says that the MSRP of the television is $1429.

So you can avoiding putting more debt on the credit card by buying a $999 television for more than $3000. How does that compare to credit cards? I found this excellent credit card calculator from Ready For Zero. I put in $1000 in and it showed that at an average interest rate of 15%, you’d pay it off in 8 years and 9 months, paying a total of $717 in interest. Better to pay $717 in interest on a credit card than $2100 at Rent-A-Center, right?

I’ve always known that Rent-A-Center is a ripoff, but I had no idea the magnitude of the rip-off. It is sickening that they’d try to trick consumers to avoid credit card debt for an even worse one. Once I started to realize how bad Rent-A-Center’s rates were I started to find more articles writing about regulation about their business practices.

Consumer Reports also notes that a high interest credit card is much better than Rent-A-Center. They have much better advice, “Avoid rent-to-own, even if it means postponing purchases until you can better afford them.”

Also keep in mind that despite what the guy in the video says you don’t “really need” a 60″ flat screen TV, especially if you have credit card bills that you can’t pay off. I showed the commercial to my wife and she said, “That commercial is wrong on so many levels.” I couldn’t agree more.

How Many Mega Millions Tickets Are You Buying?

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If you have walked near a television, radio, or a general news site, you probably heard that the Mega Millions jackpot for Friday is up to over $500 million. Winning the lottery is always worth some serious coin, but $500 million means you can buy your own sports team right?

Well not exactly. The relatively poor performers of the Los Angeles Dodgers went for over 2 billion recently, but maybe you can set your sites on a team that isn’t so high profile? I wonder what the Kansas City Royals would go for?

The other reason why you won’t be buying a major sports franchise is that you won’t get all $500 million. The last time I wrote about a high lottery in nearly 5 years ago, the $390 winner ended up with around $65 million: Just won $390 Million in the Lottery? Maybe not so quick.

How much would you get with $500 million? If you choose to take it as a lump sum instead of a 20-year annuity you’d get about half that amount. Let’s call it $275 to err on the generous side of things. Then you’d pay taxes of about 35% on that money. This would leave with around $180 million left to spend. It wouldn’t buy you much of a sports franchise. That also assumes that you don’t have to split it with one or more other winners. The odds of winning Mega Millions is 1 in 176 million, but with all the attention this lottery is gathering the odds of multiple winners is growing every minute.

Let’s go into fantasy world for a minute or two here. What if you did win? What would you do? The very thing that people suggest is to hire an attorney and a darn good accountant. That’s sound advice. Hopefully they help navigate on of the bigger questions: Should you take the lump sum or the annuity? That website tells you how you can do the math for your own state’s circumstances, but it looks to me that in most cases you are better off with the annuity. Personally, I’d like the annuity option because it forces me to not spend it all on a sports team. The next thing I would do with the $16 million in my first year winnings (after taxes) is buy another annuity that pays out over a longer term, something that will ensure that I’ll be covered even after the 20 year lottery winnings. From there, I’d probably need some help in figuring out how to put that money to work for me, especially in making sure that I’m covered with FDIC insurance or something similar in the places I put it. You’d also see me start buying up real estate. There are a lot of foreclosures on the market and putting the cash to work on a few of them could be great investments in the future. This may even include perhaps buying a modest home in Silicon Valley (though it is much cheaper to rent here).

To answer my question in the title, I plan on buying 10 tickets for the lottery tomorrow. Is it a smart move? Nope. Playing the lottery is a tax on those who are mathematically challenged. If you don’t believe me, simulate playing Mega Millions here. I just simulated 1,000 tickets and won $79. However, tomorrow is my birthday, so for those who believe in such things, perhaps I’ll get a little birthday luck. So what about you? Are you buying a bunch of tickets?

Fashion Gone Wild!

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In the past, I’ve written that I’m not one to celebrate the Sex and the City lifestyle. I have difficulty getting behind paying for a brand name without differentiating functionality behind it. I don’t know if it’s because I’m overly analytical or if there’s something Y-chromosomey about it. I look around at most of the things I own, like say an Element brand flat screen and I am quite happy with its performance for the money. When it comes to fashion though, I have to admit that I don’t get it. Maybe, I’m too much of a Maxxinista (wait, is that Maxxinisto for me?).

I’m reminded by this when I see stories about this $1,050 swimsuit that you shouldn’t get wet. Let me repeat, over $1000 for a swimsuit that you shouldn’t get wet. In my opinion it is also an unattractive swimsuit that will leave an ugly triangle tan-line. Nonetheless, I’m sure there are people with effectively unlimited money that will buy this. That article also gives a nod to the $500 pair of socks that you can’t wash as well as the 8-inch high heels, that are hardly suitable for walking. (The toe-shortening surgery that the article is really about is an article for another day.)

I shouldn’t pick on women’s fashion exclusively though. After all, I could buy dozens and dozens of the swimsuits, socks, and shoes mentioned above for the $250,000 price tag of this Harry Winston watch. The key feature of the watch is, of course, giving you the time in hours and minutes. There appears to be no second hand. When it gets to a new hour, wow, it looks entertaining. Here’s a video:

One of the most disappointing aspects of this is that the crazy spending can’t even be blamed on the Price-Placebo Effect. People know going in how impractical the items are. They don’t do anything better much, much cheaper versions. In fact, in most cases they perform their function quite a bit worse.

It saddens me to see money spent like this. I realize that some people have enough money that purchases like these are insignificant. I can’t imagine being such a person without having a bit of guilt. In the back of my mind, I would think, what would the red cross, dog shelter, or Kiva.org do with that $1,000? Am I really going to get more out of watching all 566 parts of a watch fly together to form a number every hour, or knowing that I could have permanent changed the lives of hundreds of people in a third world country.