Making better decisions

OK.... I thought I would throw this topic out here because it is applicable in a generic context, ie. life itself. I have deliberately failed to mention what products are involved because I want to talk about the thought process that goes into decision making and learn how I can make better decisions when it comes to things like this. Please keep it focused so the mods don't bring the stick

More than anybody else (and my dozen SFs) I understand the importance of buying quality. In fact I'm the one who's hated at work because I insist on it (whereas everybody else is hell bent on "cost cutting").

But it's tougher when it comes to personal decisions because making a choice between an entry level product at $200 and high-end "pro" version at $2K is a tough one; especially when you don't have $2K. I'm sure many of us have faced such a dilemma before, when you've only got $x and the product you need/want costs $x + $lots_more$. Regardless of product origin, there is a variation. For example, I could easily name 2 different US-based flashlight manufacturers on completely different ends of the price scale, but let us us examine this in a broader context.

The pitfall is that if you buy the entry level product and it fails you're out the $ AND you need to get a replacement, hence the saying 'too poor to buy twice' used as an argument to buy the good stuff in the first place.

But the good stuff is expensive, and thus one is always tempted to buy cheaper to see if one can 'get by'. Glowing reviews of the cheaper product do not always paint an accurate picture. Neither do negative reviews, one could put it down to 'someone getting unlucky'. And if the good stuff is priced out of your range, it could entirely mean doing without in which case you are almost as badly off as if you buy the cheap stuff and it fails (although you then have the loss and frustration to deal with).

I realize this is not the first time I've made this mistake, the first time I bothered to do a decision analysis on something like this was back in '98. It's been 12 years and I still don't have a bulletproof solution on how to avoid ending up in the situation. It's a catch-22.

How do you decide for yourself in such a case?

yeah. this is tricky. no real answer i think.

just buy the best you can afford. if it is out of your budget. then it is out of your reach. simple. you dont have the money to get it then all you can do is to substitute it with weaker option and dream about the better. (atleast for now..start saving money if you need to) but until then. buy the one you can afford to use, loose, break, abuse and replace.

if you need something, you will NEED it, you have to have one, cheap/weak etc it doesnt matter, no way around it, you still need one, so you have to buy it anyway.. and if it fails eventually, it still was better (for a while) than not having anything, it probably did help you do it better than without it.

if you DONT NEED it, then its totally different thing. but if you DO need one, there is no excuse not having the cheap one that you can afford to buy, atleast until you have the money to buy the better one.

its always a problem with need versus want versus budget. limitations come only to those that have a budget. others can buy what they want and all of them.

me myself. i prefer to cheap out. as i dont need bombproof anything. i try to find decent options of the middle price range and add an backup to it (or atleast know where i can find one to fill in for the good one for short while.)

all i buy i buy with cash. not in debt. thats why i drive an old junk for a car etc.

There is no "bulletproof solution" to any major decision. If something is way out of your price range, accept reality and narrow down your choices. Then think about reviews, aesthetics, the manufacturers' willlingness to stand befind their respective products, and price differences. Then sleep on it, for at least one week. Pick one product and think about why you chose it over the others. Then ask if you really need or want the thing.

If you need it and will use it for whatever purpose you have in mind, then buy it.

If it's something you desire rather than something you need, think about whether or not spending the money on it is a good idea, i.e., will spending that money on a toy make you feel better or worse in the end? If it will make you feel better, buy it. If not, then pass.

That's my thought process. Hope this helps.

When Buying anything before I even get into the quality level of the thing I am about to buy I ask myself the following 3 questions: -
1) Do I need it?
2) Will I use it?
3) Can I afford it?

If the answer to any one of the questions is No then I don't buy it. I think if everyone did this then a lot of us would probably have a good deal fewer flashlights LOL.:naughty:

I tend to lean towards quality myself, much like KevinL, especially when it is something that is "mission critical."

My personal laptop is a $3K Dell Latitude E6400 which is nearing two years old right now. I'm sure it performs better than most brand new consumer laptops, but it's had its fair share of issues (I'm on a second LCD and a second touchpad/palmrest assembly). However, the ProSupport warranty that gets me parts dispatched the next day is what keeps me buying Latitude, along with superior build quality. The laptop has also had its fair share of tumbles, especially at the TSA checkpoint and baggage carousel, with no ill effects.

Financially, this laptop is a horrible value, exceeding the cost of 4-5 average laptops, but the average age of a laptop I retire is 3-4 years. Even after being retired, my old laptops still get plenty of use from me as a spare or test box. My 11-year-old Latitude L400 has been my first laptop, my aunt's first laptop, and my cousin's first laptop, and is still very much usable today.

Would I go to this extent and buy a $200+ pair of shoes? Probably not, and I won't regret it. It's just not as important to me as my laptop.

I try to look at it from a feature set perspective. Usually, I start by looking at the top of the line, then work my way down watching for price vs features. Usually, about 2 - 3 levels down from the top, there is a pretty good value proposition, especially for things which are hobby or non critical in nature.

If I can't afford what I want, then I just wait.

For some products, I find that the best values (for me) are in the ones that people have recently move away from, especially in cars and vans.

I am pretty dependent on some products, such as my cell phone. For those, I pay extra to obtain top of the line reception and voice quality, regardless of the other feature sets and price.

NonSenCe said:

just buy the best you can afford. if it is out of your budget. then it is out of your reach. simple.

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Absolutely agree. I'd like to add: Don't settle for less if you *can* afford more.
Example: My grandfather always bought good quality tools for his home workshop. Since his death many of his sometimes more than 30 year old tools still do a good job in my house. Because of this experience I now do the same. If I *can* afford EUR 5,- for just one screwdriver which I need I will pay this price for a quality tool and not settle for the set of 10 for the same price. Because I don't need 9 of them at the moment.

In my humble opinion the best value for money is usually the medium price range of a given product. I made this experience with cars, with flashlights, tools, photographic equipment, computers.

Reason: The lowest price is only achieved by cutting quality. The highest quality often has a markup for exclusivness, because the pro's will pay the price (they earn their money with it). So for me the medium range is usually my playground.

you dont have the money to get it then all you can do is to substitute it with weaker option and dream about the better. (atleast for now..start saving money if you need to)

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The problem with "saving for the better" are the short lifecycles of products. Not always a new product is better than its predecessor (Example: digital cameras) and the new version might not suit my needs any more. This has happened to me several times.

This fact sometimes makes me buy something even though I can't afford it *at the moment*: If I had been looking for something specific for a long time and could not find a product suiting my needs. When I then suddenly discover something which absolutely fits my bill I will go for it even if it costs more than I would have been prepared to pay. But usually these decisions are based on long considerations that's why I never ever regretted one.

Greetings from Germany

Lucciola

There is enough material to be presented in this argument to fill several volumes.

I separate my spending in 3 or so categories.
NEED, WANT, WOULD LIKE.

Need is work,food, shelter, transport. I can't go without.
When looking to buy tools (gen. contractor) I need to outweigh the pros and cons. If I go cheap, will my work suffer, will it fail and force me to leave to get a replacement? Can I afford the 'best' one?

IE.: Drills. I just recently bought 3 new ones to replace a kit that was starting to show it's age.
I replaced my 14.4v Ni-cad Milwaukee (200$)with an 18v Li-on Makita. (350$)
I could have spent ~450$ on a Hilti, which has a much better replacement plan, however the frequency I replace my drills I would not benefit from this. Hilti does deliver replacements and loaners. If mine breaks I won't be without a tool for long.

Did I make the best choice? Time will tell.
I make money with my purchases (tools) Thus forcing me to get better equipment that will allow me to keep making money.

For toys, flashlights *cough*, I don't absolutely need them, yet I don't enjoy owning cheap anything, so I rather go without that not have something very good. I'll save up.

There is no hard and fast rule, but the general guideline I go for is best bang for the buck. This weighs the quality of the item, the necessity of having the item, the length of time I plan to need it, how critical a component of whatever system the item will be, and of course, cost.

The boots I wear cost about $225. I expect two to three years use out of them. I could have bought $30 boots and worn them out in a month, or I could have bought $800 top of the line boots and worn them out in four years. For me, the best cost:benefit ratio is from the $200-$250 boots.

They're the best bang for the buck.

If it's something truly important, then I'll save up to buy the quality product. If out of my price range to a greater degree, I'll borrow the money or get a loan. If it's even further out than that, I'll have to make do with a less expensive version. Hopefully it's not just a case of cheap vs. quality. If there's something in between, I'll buy the best quality version I can afford.

If it's something that's not truly important, I'll reconsider if I want to spend the money on it at all. If I decide to do so, then I'll put price above quality. (But that is rare for me to do.)

Main aspect is being able to use it for the task at hand and will it serve the purpose. In that regard, those "tools" tend to be as high a quality for the intended purpose as a durable. For "wants" and "like to have", I wait 7 days and re-evaluate. So impulse buying is not frequent.

I regulate the amount of money I spend very carefully. I also think very hard about what I want from a product when I buy it. Will it make me sad if it breaks and it has no warranty? What if I lose it? I usually end up settling for a mid-range product, better than what most people have but not the best out there. That way it's less of a loss when it breaks or gets lost/stolen, but I can trust it more than everyday crap, and it has a warranty. 4Sevens, zippo, kershaw, leatherman, county comm, etc.. There are a few cases where I might buy as cheaply as possible, like for my EDC electronics, because I'm going to be replacing them ASAP anyway. No sense paying $4000 for a laptop that will be worth $500 in a few years, or paying $500 for a cell phone that isn't designed to last more than a few years (which I did).