Personal Tips and Plan for Saving Up for Pricey Electronics

Times are tough, and for the tech enthusiast on a budget, times are even tougher due to the rocky economy. However, in real life, mathematics prevail, and if you want to make a tech gadget purchase that costs more than you can usually afford, you have to save for it. Effective saving requires a solid plan and a source of income that gives you enough to pay your bills and put cash away. This is my effective savings plan for my next technology purchase: a PS3.

In case you have not heard of the PS3, it is one of the new, advanced gaming consoles on the market. The original incarnation of this console was first released in late 2006. I can be somewhat slow to buy in to entertainment technology advances, so I am still using the Playstation 2, which originally came out in the year 2000.

Step One: Research

Getting the best price on a piece of high-end electronics saves you the saving you would have to do to pay a higher price. So naturally, doing some research to determine the price range for the object can prove highly valuable, especially when there are numerous holiday sales price wars offering temporary deep discounts on this kind of stuff.

Knowing the high, low and median price range on a high-priced electronics buy means you can make your purchase confident that you didn’t get ripped off on the price, which for a PS3, can vary over $100. It also helps to know the various options and variations that can affect the price of a tech gadget.

For instance, PS3 has variations including a slim size and different hard drive sizes. It can also be paired with a variety of accessories, games and attachments, each with a price of its own. Understanding everything about a big electronics purchase helps me make sure I get just what I wanted for my money.

Step Two: Find the Money

Around the holidays, saving up for an entertainment device can be as simple as waiting for a seasonal gift from Grandma. Sometimes, you might not have that luxury. When finding the money is up to me, I am left with the option to spend more hours at my current job, or to do other work for money. Since I like my current job, I will opt to work a little longer to make sure I make more than I need for bills each month.

Step Three: Put it Away

When the money shows up from a stint of hard extra work, sometimes the hardest thing to do can be to put it aside for later. This is the reason I plan to put away every spare cent I have, because the longer I have to save, the more I have to feel the pain of putting it aside. For other people who want to take a more long-term approach to saving money for a big electronics purchase, it may be a good idea to take out a short term investment to build more money while it is put away. This can help put the money out of reach while building it a little in the meantime. I would go the investment route if I were buying a huge TV, but it is not feasible for smaller electronics purchases like a PS3.

Step Four: Buy it!

Using the research I did earlier to determine the price range and feature options of the PS3, I would then search the current prices and availability to find the best deal for my money. Of course, I might pay a certain premium to buy the PS3 locally so I can have it to play with right away, but not if the price is too much higher.


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