Upgrading the technology in your home is always a fun experience. Whether it is the excitement that getting your hands on the latest smartphones brings or installing a new gadget that makes your life that much easier, few buzzes can compare to unwrapping a shiny new piece of technology and playing with it for the first time.
Unfortunately, there is often one barrier that can prevent us from getting our hands on the equipment we want and need, and that is price. Because technology is evolving all the time, staying at the forefront of it takes a considerable outlay which might appear to be beyond the means of many households earning a modest income.
If you can’t afford to purchase within the first year of a new piece of technology coming out, chances are by the time you can, it will have been replaced by an upgraded, even more expensive item.
This doesn’t have to be the case. There a few ways in which you can find the money to afford the newest technology sooner rather than later. Here are some of them.
Start saving up
This is the most obvious way of being able to afford a new piece of tech when it hits the market. You might not be able to afford the hundreds or thousands of dollars it costs right now, but by putting away a little bit of cash every month, in six months down the line, you will be able to.
You can do this in two ways. One is by reading industry news to see what might be hitting the market in the coming months. Take Apple, for example. By knowing when Apple hosts their regular conferences throughout the year, you can make a calculated guess at when the announcement of a new product might be coming. By starting to save a few months in advance of that day, by the time Tim Cook is on stage revealing the latest iPhone or iPad, you’ll be in a stronger financial position to be able to purchase it.
The second way of saving is by setting aside a set amount of cash each month into a ‘new technology budget.’ By paying say $100 a month into this pot, should there come a time ten months down the line when a piece of technology becomes available that you are dying to have, then you’ll have a little nest egg saved away, allowing you to afford it there and then.
Find good deals
No matter how much money you’ve got saved up or are willing to spend on new technology, you don’t want to end up paying out more than you need to. That’s why you should always be on the lookout for the best deals available when you are considering making a purchase.
Check various websites for the same items to see if there is a significant difference in price or if one retailer is offering any extras with a purchase. Browser extensions like Honey can help you do this by pointing you in the direction of the best deals and coupon codes available.
Alternatively, if the timing is right and we are only a month or two away from the traditional sales seasons that you can hold fire until then, and potentially pick up the item for a severely discounted rate.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the most famous sales dates, but you can often find discounted goods around other holidays while individual retailers may hold flash sales or knock down prices in order to celebrate a special birthday or anniversary. By shopping around, you can often find a good deal that you might not have expected.
Sell what you don’t need
If you’ve got the newest technology coming in to upgrade your home, then you can get rid of the old technology that it is potentially going to replace. Many of us don’t do this – we plug in and use whatever is new and put whatever is now obsolete in the attic or the basement where it gathers dust for the next ten years.
Not only will selling what you don’t need free up space in your home, but it can also bring in some much-needed cash. Old televisions, computers, cell phones, DVD players, even VCR’s, can fetch a decent amount.
Selling isn’t just restricted to stuff that works either. There is a growing market for broken technology with enthusiasts keen to take something that doesn’t work and fix it up or other people who are just interested in parts to get their own similar devices working again. It’s precisely this sort of trading that eBay was invented for.
Take out a loan
If you are in a situation where you can’t afford the technology that you want now, but no you’d be able to pay for it over an extended period of time, then it can be worth taking out a loan to get your hands on whatever it is that you want.
The good news is that loans are becoming increasingly accessible to everyone. Even if you have bad credit, you can be eligible for a loan through a lending company such as Bonsai Finance as this article explains.
There is no stress over a credit check, no need to put up collateral and a far less chance of being turned down. If you want new technology for your home here and now, then a loan can be the easiest way of getting it.
Get a part-time job
If you really, really want that latest smartphone then you can always work hard to get it. If the trouble is that you don’t earn enough money to afford it, then take up a second job in order to increase your income.
Evening work twice a week in a bar or restaurant can supplement what you already have coming in and be put purely towards affording the new technology that you want. Sure, spending time serving food or pouring drinks might not seem like a good use of your spare time, but when you’ve got the latest Alexa in your home or a brand new cinema-quality television, it will be worth it.
