Mechanics of buying for the future (and now)

Being the "go to" person when anyone I know wants to buy a new gadget, I am always asked, "When is a good time to buy a laptop?" or camera, or cell phone. Or, "What kind of features do I need?" The answer is simple:

"You buy electronics when you really need electronics, and you get the features (or services) you will actually use now or in the near future."

I know the concept is so simple, but many of you still don't seem to grasp it. You are easily swayed by the newest cell phone, with an abundance of features (most of which you'll never use). The newest sound system at Circuit City, that doesn't decode the digital sound coming from your blu-ray player. And so on. Truth is, we are all gimmicked to buy things that we don't need, or will never use to it's fullest, because of our consumer-istic nature and our never-ending quest to satiate the need for material things to fulfill our life.

Today, I will talk about how you can make better decisions in your next tech purchases.

Buy if and ONLY IF you need it. You buy a computer, and you are convinced that, since it is tons faster, it's worth the $2,000+ because it will motivate you to edit those home movies you've never got a chance to edit on your slow computer. Years go by, and you never edit one movie. That $2,000+ you spent went to surfing online, and checking email. Yay for you.

• Don't let new sales sway your decision into buying a new gadget you were going to buy 6 months from now. Technology advances crazy fast nowadays, you buy a new tv today, most likely a bigger, brighter, and better tv will come out next month for the same price. So if you bought a new tv on sale earlier this year for 2009's Superbowl party, most likely, you will have lost your money and missed out on the new 120hz, bigger screens, and brighter pictures that are the same price now as those smaller, dimmer, 60hz scan tvs earlier this year.
• Don't buy an HD video camera if you don't plan on editing it. These files take up space. If you don't edit them right away, be prepared to buy extra external hard drives or dozens of dvds, to fill with useless movies you probably will never watch. Instead, remember that digital cameras now record movies, and they are a lot smaller too! If you already have a digital camera and plan on buying a video recorder to capture short clips of say, your family memories, then invest in newer batteries and a bigger storage card instead.

Determine the features you want. Any good Best Buy salesman, who are all evil, will feed you a load of crap to buy something you don't need, so do your research first and know what you want.

• Basic guide for buying computers.

1. Generally, for simple web browsing and email, Atom Processors on laptops are all you really need, or any budget pc with 2gb of ram will suffice.
2. For video editing, you'll need a bigger hard drive(320gb+) and more ram(2-4gb).
3. For gaming, a discrete (separate) video card, 128-bit or more and 256mb or more.

• Make use of what you already have. Be aware of the features and upgradeabillity of your current electronics. Most of you have a cell phone, a camera, and an mp3 player and carry it around with you everywhere. You must have ultra big pockets or huge purses! If you listen to music, make phone calls, and take pictures sparingly, then why don't you invest in a good cell phone that can do all three! Or expand your cell phone's memory (usually max 8gb) to take more pictures or listen to more music?

to be continued: DVDs & Blu-Rays: who needs em?
sorry, i skipped gmail basics, but will cover it real soon!