Good Morning Green Panda Readers and welcome to the first Monday in March.  Hopefully you were not the victim of too many April Fool’s Day pranks yesterday.  I am not sure if I ever mentioned this before but I live with my boyfriend and we have been dating since our first year of college.  Since we have been together for a long time for the most part my boyfriend and I agree on our monthly household expenses. However there is one thing that we usually never agree on and that is the purchase of new electronics.

I work in personal finance and my boyfriend works in IT therefore our views on spending and saving are very different, I am sure that you can only imagine how our conversations go.  I feel that we should not be spending money excessively on unnecessary electronic purchases, but my boyfriend disagrees because he feels that always having the latest technology increases our quality of life.  My boyfriend always has to have the latest technology on the first day that it comes out.

For the most part I feel that spending money on new electronics is a total waste of our hard earned income, especially if we are just upgrading our current electronics and not replacing old ones. It totally drives me crazy when my boyfriend purchases a new and improved version of a Television or Computer just because it is new.  I could definitely understand replacing an old model with a newer model if it was broken, but these days it just seems like we are collecting Televisions. I don’t believe that all electronic purchases are unnecessary there are definitely some electronic purchases that I agree with.

Electronics That Are Worth The Cost:

– Cell Phone – A cell phone is a great electronic that is worth the cost because it’s always good to have a cell phone in case of an emergency.  The cost of a cell phone is definitely worth it because we can also use our cell phone as a camera, a music player, and a web browser.

– Digital Camera – If your cell phone doesn’t have a really great camera then a good digital camera can be a great investment.  Also if we are travelling using our cell phone camera can cost us in roaming charges so it’s always good to have a great digital camera to capture life’s special moments.

– Laptop – A laptop is a good electronic investment because we all need a computer to stay connected with the world. I love the convenience and portability of a laptop; it goes anywhere and everywhere that we go.

Electronics That Are Not Worth It:

– Tablet – What does a tablet really do that our cell phone, digital camera, and laptop cannot? In my opinion a Tablet has no added value to my quality of life.  It does not add convenience or simplify anything in life.  I know that Tablets are all the craze right now, but I don’t feel that they are worth the cost.

– 3D TV – Lots of new movies are being released in 3D but once again I don’t see the added value. Movies are movies and the 3D effect is not so amazing that it is worth the expensive price.  Not all movies and television shows are currently available in 3D; therefore I feel that a 3D TV is an electronic purchase that is not worth the cost.

Photo by uggboy

Tahnya Kristina

Tahnya Kristina

Tahnya is 30 years old and lives in Montreal Quebec. She graduated in 2005 from Concordia University, and she currently works for a major International Financial Institution. She recently launched http://www.mediamadam.ca/. You can follow her on Twitter @TahnyaP.