The Dollar Rule vs. iPod/DS/PSP Games

Submitted by George on Mon, 2009-09-21 01:08

Dollar Rule vs. Handheld Game Consoles

On Sept 9, 2009 Apple announced their video-camera iPod Nano, iTunes and a few other more minor things. A large chunk of the announcement was focused on the iPod Touch as begin a great portable game console. Apple compared the iPod Touch to the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS, using the number of game titles as proof of the iPod Touch's looming dominance: 21,178 iPod Touch/iPhone games, Sony PSP with 607 games, and the Nintendo DS with 3,680 titles.

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Time for a Change

Submitted by George on Wed, 2008-11-05 01:41

Now that the 2008 U.S. elections are over, we can go back to worrying about our hard-earned dollars in this less-than upbeat economy.

While the Dollar Rule tends to lean somewhat towards the conservative (Republican) side in some fiscal matters, we feel that this election cycle showed that we really did need a change in this country's combined mindset if we are to move forward in fixing the economy.

Even if the leadership change might be largely perceptual or emotional, it's still important.

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The Dollar Rule vs. Your Car

Submitted by George on Tue, 2008-10-21 01:05

The Dollar Rule vs. Your Car

At the Dollar Rule we're not content to analyze smaller purchases like iPods or movie tickets. We want to see how well (or poorly) the Dollar Rule stands up against even very big ticket and infrequently purchased items.

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The Dollar Rule vs. The Movies, Part 2

Submitted by George on Sat, 2008-10-11 08:57

The Dollar Rule vs. the Movies, Part 2

In the Dollar Rule vs. the Movies, we discussed that going to the movies theaters may not always be dollar-worthy, since getting to a DRR of 1.0 for what movie tickets cost is hard to justify. Do you get $7.50 - $12 worth out going to a movie?

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The Dollar Rule vs. The Movies

Submitted by George on Tue, 2008-10-07 00:02

The Dollar Rule vs. the Movies

It's a sure sign of getting older, whenever you start to think "In my day, X only cost Y dollars." That's what it seems like when you go to the movie theaters now.

But say it I must. What the heck is with ticket prices now at the movies? Didn't they used to be a nickel?

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The Dollar Rule vs. Cable TV

Submitted by George on Thu, 2008-09-25 01:25

The Dollar Rule vs. Cable TV

As the U.S. economy continues to degrade, many people are increasingly becoming aware that the much beloved cable (or satellite) TV really does take a chunk out of your budget each month. $70-90/month might not seem like a lot (especially when gas is $50 a tank), but it easily adds up to over $1000 at $90/mo (equivalent to a new laptop or large plasma TV each year for that). Even the most basic cable packages are usually $45-50 a month.

So let's apply the Dollar Rule to a $70/mo cable bill. $70 per month means we'd have to use the cable service for around 70 person-hours a month, or 2.3 person-hours per day on average, to reach the break-even DRR of 1.0. Using your cable for several hours a day probably isn't much of a stretch for most families, especially if you have kids. Even for single folks, a couple one-hour TV episodes would cover that relatively easily.

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The Dollar Rule vs. iTunes

Submitted by George on Sun, 2008-09-07 23:56

The Dollar Rule vs. iTunes

Since we've applied the Dollar Rule to iPods, the next logical thing is to analyze iTunes purchases. At only $0.99 for a song it should be easy to hit DRR of 1.0, right? Just listen to each song for at least an hour. Is that as easy as it sounds? Let's see.

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The Dollar Rule vs. iPods

Submitted by George on Thu, 2008-08-28 16:54

The Dollar Rule vs. iPods

Let's say you bought a new iPod Nano for $149. To apply the Dollar Rule to this purchase we of course want to know if you're getting at least 149 hours of (person-hours) of benefit from it? So if you use it an hour a day, that works out to around 21 weeks (say 5 months) if you use it 7 days a week.

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The Dollar Rule vs. Your STUFF

Submitted by George on Fri, 2008-08-22 00:14

The Dollar Rule vs. Your Stuff

Now that we've got a good understanding of the Dollar Rule, let's pick apart some purchases and see what makes sense. Is it okay to replace the computer every 2 years? New cell phone every 12 months? New shoes every 8 months? New TV every 5 years?

These are common purchasing decisions that we as consumers deal with all the time.

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Refining the Dollar Rule

Submitted by George on Thu, 2008-08-21 03:51

Refining the Dollar Rule

Although we've applied the Dollar Rule to various example purchases (like the Nintendo Wii Fit, baby gear, and laptops), let's take a more critical look at the Dollar Rule itself.

The Dollar Rule: A product or service you buy should return at least 1 hour o

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