- Put it in my savings account for my trip to Japan next September, or
- Pay off my 18TB HDD (900 bucks) and get rid of all the upcoming installments ($100/month), or
- Other
Either way, my monthly balance stays the same, I think. I’m really bad with money. 💀
Easy, which one has the highest interest rate. If you pay off your hdd now, do you save on loan interest? Then that 1000 is worth more because it’s 1000+ the Interest you now won’t have to pay. Same for savings. My savings rate is ~3.6% APY, so 1000 after a year is 1036, not much extra, but that’s a meal or two.
Or Yolo it into the stock market, and potentially make 20% ($200) on it by next year.
It depends what you think the future holds.
Boring answer is: can you put it in a Roth IRA or other post-tax advantaged account? That’s for if you think the world will be around when you retire.
If you think the price of ram is gonna double again, buy a 64 GB kit of DDR5 now and sell it on Craigslist next year
Or if you believe that memories now are worth more than memories in the future, just spend it on things that make you happy. This is free money, Noone can force you to be responsible
I wanted to make a joke/silly comment, but your last paragraph was so heartfelt I… No, no, here it goes:
Joke done. Thanks for all the great insights, as I literally have zero skill points in finances. 🤑