I had an urge to by a Chromebook last week. There are a couple of reasons which include security on line, and mainly just having lots of battery power for an outlay of £200. Another really useful reason is not having to worry about updates. Finally ( and I promise, finally), it just switches on and off. This is everything I need.

The Chromebook isn’t perfect. For example, the screen is good, but not great, the sound output needs a boost from my DAC, and the keyboard could be bigger. These are minor things. What this helps with is getting excuses out of the way. What I need to do now is make a return on my investment.

The idea of an investment is a tricky one. Normally, any investment above the current interest rate would be a good one. I think the interest rate is around 1% for the moment and has stayed at an all time low since the financial crash of 2008. So let’s say that I want a 10% return in a year. That would mean I’d need to generate £220 from my investment.

That doesn’t work! I’d be £200 down on an asset that is no longer worth £200. It may only be worth £100.

So to recap – I’ve spent £200, and generated £20 over the year leaving me £180. All things being equal, it would take 18 years to pay for the Chromebook. That’s assuming that it still worked and was of any use.

(I have no idea where this is going and most of my logic will be based on very poor assumptions. Please hang in there.)

All of this depends on whether I can generate any financial return. So why did I buy it? I’m a consumer, so I must expect some benefit, from my actions. I’m going to stick with the idea that I’ve bought it to make my future self better off. What I did was take some money from the self of me now, and passed it on to myself at some point in the future. At the same time I’m doing something in the moment to take my mind off things and if not plan for a better future, take a step that appears to be in the right direction.

A brighter future must mean earning more money. I haven’t had a pay rise in five years, and inflation is around 2% (I’m guessing – it hasn’t been the most important thing in the news recently) and that figure never includes petrol and rent.

So if I was on £20,000 pa, I’d be on £19600 after year 1, and £19208 after year 2! I’m going to stop there. My maths should be better, and I’ve shocked myself more than enough. During this time, the economy has been growing at around 2% (Guessing again, but it’s not too far off). So, my salary should have increased to £20,400 after year 1 and to £20808 after year 2. Again, I don’t want to go on without using a spreadsheet, but I’ve made my point to myself. My wages should go up and up if the economy is growing! However, this depends on a few things………

Perhaps the government spent money on shiny new laptops, or companies invested in new widget machines to make widgets more quickly.

The government laptops may have seemed like a great idea at the time, but the return on investment was lower, and it was delayed. The new assets are now worthless, and not giving any value, except the difference in not replacing them. This is kicking the can down the road, and missing out on future benefits. Money is being taken from the present me, and the future me, who will probably have to pay more.

The widget company enjoyed initial success, but after a year their widgets were out of fashion, and a new company introduced a better technology. Widget inc either failed to plan years ahead, or didn’t care. The company either goes bust, or is bought out by another company. It would be unlikely that everyone loses out. The company failure would not have been a surprise the people at the top running it. Perhaps, they gambled with the company pension fund to keep the lights on. Share prices would have risen over the year, and many people “in the know” would have benefited. I’m not accusing any of the fictitious managers of my imaginary company of insider trading, just to be clear! But money would have been taken from the future pot of the workers, and middle managers for the benefit of the higher management after the company has gone out of business.

I need some conclusions.

1. Plan how much more I need to earn each year to at east stand still.
2. Work out which investments I need to make to get there.
3. Do intangible benefits turn in to tangible benefits over time?
4. Has this time I’ve spent now been of any value at all?

None of the above are conclusions, but what I can sat is that I still have 11 hours of battery life!