We are going through challenging times. No question about that. What I ask myself however is this. Is my life about wants or needs? We can actually take stock of what answers we get by looking around our own home. Are there things that cost us when we bought it but have not even touched it for the last year or so? Why did we buy those things in the first place? Want or need?
Sorry
folks but I'm into one of those writing moods so I'll try to get to the point.
I love
music. In my car, in my living room, my bedroom, my bathroom… I have my music
playing. When I work I listen. When I chill, I listen. That's me. But today, I
looked at my collection of CDs that is about 1,400 on my last count, and I
realised I haven't even touched one of them over the last few years! Mind you,
I bought multiple copies of the same album. First on vinyl growing up, then
cassettes. Then I had them on DAT and on to Mini Disc. Finally on CDs. Of
course those were limited to my favourites of about 20 titles. Of course I had
them converted to digital for iTunes. But you get the idea.
Why am I
not playing them? Because I have moved on to streaming services. First Spotify,
then Rdio and now on Apple Music. I have come to the conclusion that a
subscription service is one of the best invention yet. Why? Because you no longer need to own what you need.
That's a
key realisation. You pay RM14.00 per month and you have almost any album you
want on all your devices, including new releases everyday. And it's legal. Why
own it when you just need to listen to them? The day will come when I'm
wondering what I'll do with those CDs (some are pretty nice limited edition box
sets). I'd be that much richer if I can convert them back to cash at the price
I bought them (dreaming mode on).
Wifey is
a different story. She loves to read. And I have to buy her a wall cabinet for
her books and it's still not enough. Will she ever take out a book she read and
read it again? I doubt that. It takes up room and it ages away. But she is now
beginning to finally convert to reading on her iPad. She can have as many books
as she wants and it'll only take up about 5 in by 8 inch mini iPad space. And
there's now a subscription service too where you can read any book you want.
And we save some trees along the way.
Movies.
It's the same. First I used Netfllix and now we have iFlix at only RM8.00 per
month.
The thing
is, if you find your expenses are a little over, just cancel your subscription
and live within your means. When you can afford it, just re-subscribe and the
good thing is these services keep your data, play history, playlists and
bookmarks. You own nothing, You just pay for the rights to read, listen or view
them.
Okay, you
may say that's just all entertainment. New technology can actually de-clutter
your life.
How many
of you have photo albums? Or videos of special occasions like weddings. Now be
honest. How often do you take it out and look at them? Rarely. And they sit
somewhere in our house and again is subject to deterioration. You may argue and
say now you have digital copies stored on hard disks. Again I ask you. How
often do you plug those hard disk to your computer and look through them? In
fact my daughter just asked if I could find my grandson's first birthday's
photos when she knows she has them. She probably just don't know where to look,
or maybe she knows I can get them in like under a minute.
How?
Cloud service. And it's free.
I have
Flickr accounts for my personal albums, my church and my company. One terabyte
each. That's enough for years of photos. And it can be auto-uploaded from all
your devices. I put them in albums and tag them. So to find anything, I just
key in Caden (my grandson) and birthday and all the photos will appear. I can
retrieve them at full resolution or just play a slide slideshow of them right
off Flickr app or in this case send a link for my daughter to view or download
them.
Then
there's Google Photos. Unlimited space. Auto uploaded and videos included. And
it has smart search. It recognises things, places and occasions. So if you
search dogs, any dog photo in your collection will appear, chronologically by
date. Or search weddings and all wedding photos will appear. In the U.S..
versions, faces can also be recognised and I believe that feature will be here
soon. All your photos and videos available via a username and password. And
it's all private unless you choose to share them.
Is it
safe? Well, it's safer than your computer or hard disk or photo albums. Your
computer can be stolen and often together with your hard disk. Or your hard
disk may just choose to die or fail at the most unexpected moment. Or a fire
can destroy them all. I've heard of horror stories where all the memories they
had were wiped out when a thief broke in and took all their computers and hard
disks. You can replace them but you can never replace what's in them.
Cloud
services on the other hand has multiple backups in different locations. And you
can access them from anywhere in the world on any device that's online. Often
over dinner, I'll just show a photo from the past related to what we were
talking about and they are amazed I keep those photos in my phone. They're not.
I just pluck them off the clouds, figuratively.
It's the
same with my business. Now is the time to run lean. We used to spend tens of
thousands to buy design software and pay again for every upgrade. Now we just
subscribe to cloud service. It's always the latest version and no upgrade fees.
We don't own the software as in having a physical copy. It's a subscription for
rights of use, again via a username and password. So I can work on a project on
any computer even if they don't have that software. I just log in, download and
continue my work.
And we
learn to outsource services and talents via strategic partnerships. We used to
do everything in-house. Photography, web and multimedia. Even though they were
not our main focus. Now we have partners who can do them better and at a lower
cost to us because we only pay when we need the job done and is no longer part
of our overhead.
Don't get
me wrong. I am not against owning things. I am against hoarding things. Things
we pay for but hardly use. If it's something you use frequently, by all means.
But if there is a better way in having our needs met without having to buy
them, why not? Especially now when the ringgit is not taking us as far as it
used to. I am taking a reality check.
My church
is undergoing a major renovation and we have a "gotong-royong" day
where we try to clear stuff. I am surprised how hard it was in making decisions
to throw things. Even things that are no longer in use, like VCDs and VHS
tapes. That's because they cost money. We are still physically burning CDs of
sermons. I wonder why, when YouTube offers free and unlimited space to store
them in the clouds. It's easier to share them and they don't deteriorate over
time. There needs to be a shift in mindset. Having things we can hold in our
hands no longer means what they used to. Technology have changed all that and
we should embrace them because they'll help us save money and provide a
convenience we never knew possible.
I leave you with this thought. Every trash we throw away was something we paid for. Nothing we own means much one day, so if we were to take a hard look at the things we spent our hard earned money on, is there an alternative that can save us some money and yet get us what we need. That will make us good stewards of our money.
I leave you with this thought. Every trash we throw away was something we paid for. Nothing we own means much one day, so if we were to take a hard look at the things we spent our hard earned money on, is there an alternative that can save us some money and yet get us what we need. That will make us good stewards of our money.
