Money Obedience

A few days ago I got an e-mail called “Check out the new 13-inch MacBook”. I bought a MacBook about 1 1⁄2 years ago and it is working fine, of course. There is no need to check out another laptop and to impact my household budgeting right now. Anyway, my e-mail address is registered with Apple, which is why I get product updates sent to me automatically like this latest one. Are these updates really much of a benefit to me? Or do they rather benefit Apple Inc.?

I did not open the Apple e-mail because I did not want to be tempted to buy the newer, snazzier, and hipper MacBook. Not that I would go out and buy a new laptop right away, but I don’t even want to know what I am missing by staying with my old laptop.

I think it happens all too often that we get lured into subscribing to “product updates” which are really just a nicer way to market products to us than using totally unsolicited spam mail. (Sometimes I check my spam mails and I am amazed at all the e-mails trying to sell me something.) But in either case, reading these e-mails most often arouse at least some desire to own the product on offer. We may not yield to that desire right away, but the bug to buy this stuff gets planted into our heads when we read such e-mails – of course, that’s probably the company’s real purpose of sending them.

There are already so many things buzzing about in my head that I don’t need another one right now, which is why I chose to not even open the e-mail from Apple. Still, I am sure that my happiness is not diminished. I think I might even be happier, since I am now blissfully ignorant of what I am missing in Apple’s latest greatest offering. Come to think if it I am proud of myself for resisting the temptation to open the e-mail. That makes me feel good and a little happier. Thank you, Apple Inc.!