Smart Decisions: How Technology Is Taking Hold Of Your Finances

When you think about technology, you imagine a world of convenience, with gadgets and products that make life easier or services that send the message that what once was considered to be impossible is anything but.

Technology typically isn’t linked to money or your finances, but that oversight might be costing you a small fortune. Take for instance that 4K television, all 60 inches of it, that you’re thinking about buying, or the latest and greatest smart phone that just hit the shelves, whatever version that might be.

You take a quick stock of what you already have and realize quickly that your every day, older HD TV or your older version of your phone actually don’t need to be upgraded at all, but instead can be kept for a few more years, thus getting you past that point of spending thousands on that new TV or hundreds on that new phone.

Here’s where technology meets lousy money decisions. You think about impulse buying, and at the root of it is wanting to keep up with the latest trends or perhaps what others (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) have that you don’t.

One of the more discussed downfalls of money and not being able to save it is wanting to “keep up with the Jones’), a slogan that is cliche but means you have to have the latest and greatest, just like that fictions family in that statement.

So when that new TV comes out, you buy it. Same goes for the phone.

And truthfully, the products themselves are just the beginning of you overspending or your money woes. Cable isn’t cheap. It costs about $2,000 or more per year to have it. And that cell phone plan, complete with new, fancy phone, also is going to run you close to a $100 per month with that fresh, upgraded data plan potentially. Granted, your older cell phone is still smart and might cost you the same, but they’ll be some incentive on your part to be sold not only a new phone but the means to use it more.

The fact of the matter is technology is how we live today. It’s what we do as far as entertainment, communication and anything else that links us to anything from our favorite shows to talk to our favorite (or not so favorite) people. We can’t escape it, but that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice money and to save up for it or, at the very least, overspending to get it as part of merely lousy buying decisions.