Besides a house, the best things I have ever bought for myself are my scooter/moped and my iPad Pro.
Why you ask is something material important? For 99% of the time, material things are not important to me and I think it’s strange when people apply a status to any material good.
I’m someone who is cautious with things I buy, it’s in the blood, both heritage and cultural I think. For 10 years I spent about £100 a month on my tube pass for the London Underground, which I think is still ridiculously cheap for the value that you get. Trust me, coming from South Africa with no access (at the time) to this luxury called ‘Public Transport’, you appreciate the tube!! Each day, my journey’s took me anything from 45 minutes to an hour each way. Let’s round it off at 10 hours a week. About 10 years ago, I moved home and location, which was closer to where my job was in the city. My transport options were good, but it was awkward to get into work with an extra stop along the way. So the journey time wasn’t that much quicker. I did the numbers and figured that a scooter which was about £2,600 at the time, would be a valuable investment from a financial perspective. It would take a few years for it to start saving me money, compared with the tube pass I’d have to buy.
What I didn’t quite quantify at the time was the real saving it was going to give me…..TIME. My journey’s became 15 minutes each way, I was also independent and experienced seeing the city above ground. After 10 years of riding I figured I gained 3,500 hours which is 146 days. They say you can’t buy time….
I now work from home for myself, so no more fun times on the scooter, but my journey time is zero minutes per day.
I work as a coach helping people to realise their full potential and take that next big step in their lives. For each client I take extensive notes during each session which I share with them. Previously this was done using my pen and notepad. After each coaching session, it would take me longer than an hour to type out the notes in digital format to send to that client.
Always one looking to be more efficient, I went hunting for software to help me with this dilemma of time wasting and inefficiency. My mathematical ways, financial mind and frugalness did all the calculations — how much was an hour of my time worth? How long would it take me to pay off this investment? The numbers worked and it would take two weeks …a total no-brainer to buy an iPad Pro. You see, the iPad Pro has this fancy pencil and then some seriously smart and awesome note taking apps which convert your handwriting to text, at the push of a button….!! Barring a few formatting and spelling differences (due to my untidy handwriting) it now only takes me 5 mins to clean up and send notes to my clients! Another saving of hours a week….
Be smart with your time, it is precious. Be wise with your purchases, spend smartly.