It seems like my laptops last about two years. After that time, either the wear and tear leads to maintenance costs in the hundreds of dollars (enough to buy a new laptop), or there is so much new software and technology out that I need more hardware to accommodate it. As a writer and college instructor, my keyboards take more of a pounding than that dished out by the average user. And internet learning platforms are constantly being updated and upgraded, requiring instructors to need more and more memory to work with increasingly advanced functions.
I’ve had my current computer for a year. So it is time for me to think about where the money is going to come from for my inevitable purchase of another one.
My approach falls under the umbrella of keep it simple. I will get completely away from all technology for this goal. Spare cash in an envelope until I have enough! Can this possibly work? I have done it before with astounding success. Here is how and why:
A Compaq Presario CQ62-410US 15.6-Inch Notebook will be the perfect upgrade to my current Compaq Presario CQ56. Amazon sells the laptop right now for $459.00. How much money will I need to put into my envelope each month in order to grab one in a year?
Here are the numbers: $459 divided by the 12 months in the year = $38.25. Weekly, that comes to about $8.83. And if we divide by the 365 days in the year, I need to put around $1.26 in the envelope. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just call it $1.25.
How many days do I come home with pocket change? My answer is many. I’ll make it a daily ritual.
Many may ask: why does the envelope matter? Why not just use a bank account? In my experience, the answer is all in psychology. When I use the bank account, I am watching numbers on a screen each week. It is so much easier for me to click a button and pay a bill from a screen than it is to pull $25 or $40 cash out of an envelope.
Since a laptop is critical to my making a living, there are plenty of cues and prompts that I can use to inspire, motivate, and coerce myself into adding that $1.25 every day.
I would begin with a manilla envelope, eight and one-half inches by 11 inches would work. On it, I paste a few pictures. One is a printout of the Amazon page with the Compaq Presario. Beneath that, I put a picture of my three girls. I also add a photo of my wife. Thus, the first set of prompts reminds me of the larger, ultimate outcome of achieving this goal: a laptop is part of “bread and butter,” a way to keep my darlings fed and healthy.
Since one envelope of that size will be overrun with bills and change after a very short period, I use incremental strategies in order to solve this problem and to keep money going in and not out. After a set amount, say $25, I get money orders and stick them in the envelope. The serial numbers on the money orders, along with the basic info (including where I purchased it), goes into a backup file of some kind.
Thus, if the envelope were lost or stolen, the money orders could simply be replaced. Another trick (to avoid putting the serial numbers in a computer file that I could easily access … too tempting) is to buy all of the money orders at the same bank, WalMart or other vendor. The company would have records of purchases made over a specific time period. So if I bought them after every 20 days, or something like that, it would be easy to get records pulled by customer service. I could get the old ones voided and new ones reprinted.
Along with each money order, I attach a note that reminds me of my goal, something like: “you want to keep writing (or teaching) successfully, don’t you?”
Thus, while technology is a wonderful and essential part of our society, sometimes working without it for a period of time can actually help move toward computer upgrades.