There’s the adage, “spend your money where you spend your time.”
If you’re going to spend a lot of time in front of a TV, get a nice one. Cook a lot? Get the good knives and pans. Don’t read much? Don’t buy an e-reader or book subscription service. Not big into DIY? Get cheap drill/driver for the rare times you need it.
There’s plenty of exceptions but it’s a nice general rule.
Your kid's first musical instrument. It's counterproductive and false economy to buy them a piece of shit guitar or tuba or whatever it may be, in the belief that "if they like it and want to continue with it, I'll buy them a better one in the future". You might well turn the kid off the instrument for life if their instrument is harder to play/maintain and worse to listen to than it ought to be.
If you want your kid to be enriched by music and to be creative, buy them a decent mid-range instrument. Make it so that the kid can't wait to pick it up, don't make those crucial early days of learning the instrument feel like eating watery gruel for months with an expectation of pizza at some point down the line. A shitty instrument will be an additional barrier the kid will need to deal with every time they use it. Get out of their way, buy them something serviceable. If they lose interest regardless, well at least you know they had a fair shot at it and it wasn't the crappiness of the instrument that caused them to abandon it. And you can always sell or donate the instrument if they really don't give a shit about it.
The best instrument you can reasonably afford is significantly more likely to hook your kid than a £50 piece of junk would. It doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to be well-made, pleasant to play, and easy to tune/maintain/clean/whatever the case may be.
Yourself. Time and resources you invest in yourself usually grant the highest returns in the long run.
Examples:
- When job hunting, prefer opportunities that give you more valuable experience when possible.
- While planning your schedule, give highest priority to activities that contribute to your physical and mental health.
- At the grocery store, choose fresh ingredients over the cheaper and easier premade options.
- When budgeting finances, pay yourself first by setting aside what you can for your future. If not yet possible, see 5.
- Invest in your continued education, which can include traditional credentialing such as degrees or certifications, but also online and night classes, or even self-guided study.
- Choose relationships and experiences over things. While things can temporarily improve lifestyle, relationships and experiences permanently expand the life you have lived.
A good power supply. It can save your whole system.
I see a lot of specific examples, but here is a good engineering guideline: do not skimp on physical interfaces. **Anywhere energy is changing form or if it touches your body, don't skimp on those. **
For example
- tires
- bicycle saddle
- heaters/furnaces
- electrical inverters
- keyboard
- mouse
- engines
- shoes
- eyewear
- clothes (buy used if necessary, but always buy quality clothing)
Quality usually means more money, but sometimes one is able to find a high quality and low-cost version. In my experience though, trying to find the cheap version that works well means trying so many permutations; it would have been more economical to just get the more costly version in the first place.
Bed mattress. Sleep is important.
The rule is, if it goes between you and the ground buy quality shit.
Condoms
Dental care.
condoms
Plumbing. People seriously underestimate the damage a bad leak can do to a structure.
Personally, I try not to cheap out on anything I want to last. You don't have to buy the most expensive, but don't buy the cheapest either. Something in the middle usually does good.
I've done well buying second hand too. I recently found a bread machine for 3$ at goodwill. Works perfectly. But I also figured if I decided not to use it anymore or it was crap, then I lost 3$
LASIK
This is a niche one but quality sharpening stones. A complete blindspot for sharpeners in the western hemisphere.
People assume that the edge is great if it's sharp. There are even people that will sharpen on a brick, strop on green goop, shave hair, and claim you don't need fancy sharpening stones.
Truth is, the sharpening stone dictates edge retention as much as the blade's quality can. Can you get hair shaving sharp on a brick? Yes. Will it stay sharp? No.
This is why the Japanese go crazy for special and expensive stones. The quality of stones are so important that in medieval times, the best stone quarries were classified military secrets.
I recently attended a seminar and the speaker spoke how the 30,000 grit stones DOUBLED his edge retention over his 16,000 grit stone.
What you use to sharpen MATTERS, and that's why they get so damn expensive.
Knife. You maybe don’t need the ultra deluxe Japanese kitchen knives from the future. But a set of good, sharp knives will be a godsend if you plan to cook a lot.
Hiking gear. Especially the boots have to be of good quality. But breathable clothing (including socks) will also make a big difference when you go on a long trip.
Might be a no-brainer for some, but: meat. If you plan to make some steak, choosing a properly marbled piece of meat is as important as how you cook it. Will be exorbitantly more expensive than the discount meat, tho. But trust me, it will be worth it.
Car brakes
Been thinking about this for a while and I gotta say food. If it looks spoiled, I just throw it out. I’m not going to risk getting sick over cheap food that’s probably gone bad anymore.
Ebikes: Don't cheap out and get an Engwe or Gotrax or whatever other randomly generated name they came up with.
Buy from your local bike shops, not Amazon.
I good leather belt.
Good quality, comfortable shoes.
If you write or sign things a lot, get a couple decent pens. Not expensive ones you'd be upset if you lost them, but not sad, free office pens.
I've gotten numerous compliments on my Pilot Precise V5. It's bold, but easy to read, and if anyone borrows it, they'll notice it's smooth and feels nice to use.
The Precise is a rollerball. If you need a ballpoint, Uni Jetstream is great. Pentel Energel or Bic Inkjoys for gel. Grab a pair of each and you can write on near anything.
Zebra Sarasa Grand is a nice metal body with binder clip type clip if you want an upgrade. The above pens all use the same size refill, so if you like one body but a different ink, you can swap them.
The Grand is around $10, the rest you can find for around $5 for a pair.
If you're using a pen all day, it's an upgrade you'll notice whenever you grab a freebie pen and it's scratchy, the ink skips, and it smudges. It's a nice upgrade that will feel more luxurious than the price would imply.
Ball support.
Catamarans, caviar and coochie
Penis extension surgery
water filters, go whole house if able but get decent filters for kitchen and bathroom faucets, including the shower. You don't want to breath city water steam, or soak in it. imo it'll help improve your quality of life and be kinder to your skin. Many last for a good while so it's not really that costly.
A well made coat and a pair of boots.
Anything that connects you to the ground. Shoes, tires, beds, etc
I got two:
- (insulated) water bottle. Buy a decent one, it'll outlive you.
- Backpack
