I'm tempted to get a Gaming Laptop but not for Gaming should I?
Yes I am a gamer, no I don't want to use the Laptop for gaming.
The Laptop in question is the 'Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 Gen 7', I can't out right purchase it outright as any device is way to pricy for me. So it would be an monthly payment through 2 years.
Why do I want the Laptop?
I've been pushing myself to edit videos and have got to the stage that I have registered a company that I'll be doing this under. Sure my PC would do the ok job, it runs the programs I need such as Premiere Pro but I feel a more portable set up might be needed in the future for as my partner wants to go away to so many places in the future, the ability to move rooms in the house when I feel I no longer can work in the room such as my office to the sitting room as well as if it comes to it I can use the laptop for more 'high-end' gaming on the go in my spare time.
Why this Laptop?
Well I saw it on my phone providers website as I was checking when my current laptop is due to finish it's cycle (The laptop I have currently only have 4GB of ram and can barely open the internet) also it cost like ~£40 a month.
How much would I be paying?
The cost on the website is £42 a month with £10 upfront cost.
This does come with a 'bonus' of 2 year subscriptions of Microsoft Office 365 and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
I‘m one of the old millennials who’d never buy something if I can’t afford it right away, I save for it, or save for the next gen of that thing.
This laptop costs about £ 1020
Game pass is £ 360;
MS Office is £ 140;
Sums up to about £ 500;
This „reduces“ the price of the laptop to £ 520 or £ 22 per month.
So the price is pretty good but only if you do have use for MS office and the Game Pass, but also £ 40 per month is some high additional cost. The machine itself is good, tho.
@BudgetBandit Yeah, I wish I could save up the money for it but at the moment I need stuff like my editing to get off the ground in any form of way and can't wait 2 years to save the money for it. I know it's not really a smart move when it comes compared to outright purchasing and heck tomorrow I might be able to phone the company that's doing the deal and see if they can strike up another deal without the Gamepass and Office as I really don't need them for my day to day use, sure office is helpful and maybe I'd use Game Pass in my downtime to mess around with games but not massively interested especially if I already purchase games on Steam and there's free alternative software to office including Google's ones (That I actually prefer).
All I know is this seems to be a beacon towards something that I not only could possibly afford (Only by monthly payments) but also could be a way out of having to do things like monthly payments as well as worrying about money in the future. I know it's a big what if but it's probably the best thing I have atm with my partner up my ass about getting on with my career and stuff.
Do you have another job? Get one. Work fast, work hard, get a lot of money fast, buy a better pc. Get a notebook or something for browsing around the house.
@Tuss I have a browsing laptop that I've had for a while but that's all it's good for. Saying about another Job it's not really easy for someone like me to get a Job in the current climate of the UK so it's not really an option sadly, it's actually one of the reasons I am pushing for my Video Editing Business as not only is it a passion but it's something that some people seem to need, so there's profit to be made. Thanks for the suggestion though.
I mean you don't need a full time job. Flipping burgers at mc donalds for a month or two would suffice to pay for a new pc if you don't have to pay for housing and living during that time.
Now I don't know where in the UK you live but its getting close to Christmas so they will need more people to sort post and packages for the next two months. Retail will also need more staff for the next two months.
Leading up to Christmas is one of the best times to find a job for extra cash.
If you're also any good at photography and have a portfolio you could probably find a studio that is looking for an extra pair of hands with family photos and christmas cards.
Don't put yourself in debt unnecessarily praying for a business to hopefully be successful enough to pay off the monthly payment on a laptop that you can't actually afford.
@Tuss That's the thing I do, If I take on any more money I have to pay huge amounts of TAX on it. It's not that my company is going to take on the payments, it's that I've taken off a lot of un-necessary payments lately and feel this is one of the best tools that I most likely can get, sure for monthly payments but if my company does well I can always pay for the rest of it off in one go instead of waiting for it to finish and if it doesn't least I have a decent laptop to do the work on, as well as possibly game on.
If you are currently beneath the personal allowance limit of £12,570 then it's still only 20% on anything above the limit until you reach 50k and then it's 40% on anything above 50k. So 12,5k-50k is still 20% and anything under 12,5k is still tax free.
So if you do get a job to save up for a pc you would only pay lets say 200 in tax on 1k if you're in the 20% bracket.
It's not like they would force you to pay 20% on your whole allowance just because you hit the allowance limit.
You say TAX like it's a big scary thing but the only difference is that you have to work a couple of extra hours to make up for the tax that you will be paying. If you get £10 per hour you would have to put in 2.5 more hours to make the same as you would before the 20% bracket.
I'm currently paying 34% on everything I make if I make over 3k. I would gladly take the allowance and put in a few extra hours if I hit the 20% bracket.