Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ramit Sethi Tip # 29: Stop being a loser and pay money to save money

Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You To Be Rich posted Tip #29 in his save $1000 in 30 days challenge. This is a long post but is full of value. There is more to saving money than being cheap. Ramit also deals with the idea of paid online content. Even I have some kind of mental block about paying for services on the Internet. I’m already paying approximately $40 for my cable modem, and I’m used to sites on the Internet providing free or ad-supported services. I provide this blog for free, but I only say that in jest. I’m not convinced yet that I provide enough value to anybody to put a price on my ramblings.

One problem that I have with paying for membership sites on the Internet is that some I have joined provided little value. I fear that if I pay for another membership, I will get ripped off. It seems like the big players (Google, etc) provide a lot of value that I don’t have to pay for directly. I would hate to have to calculate what Google’s services like Gmail, Google Analytics, and others would cost me if I had to pay for them. If you won’t pay for a service, however, what might you be losing? It’s been a long time since I’ve checked into what a Wall Street Journal Online subscription costs, but if I were willing to pay the money to get access to the information, what value might it give me?

One comment Ramit leaves is that you must apply what you’ve learned. If you don’t apply a tip, it’s worthless. I recently read “Eat That Frog” and posted a review. I thought the book was a good value, but if I don’t apply what I read, then it’s worthless.

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