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What is the BEST "value" you ever paid for?

MJ DeMarco

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Some recent value...

Masterclass.com - if you have an interest in writing, acting, movies, films, screenwriting, electronic music, cooking -- a great chance to hear some wisdom from the greatest in their fields.

getStencil.com - an app for making things up pretty quick. Got it on a lifetime Sumo deal, been having a lot of fun with it.
 

jcvlds

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getStencil.com - an app for making things up pretty quick. Got it on a lifetime Sumo deal, been having a lot of fun with it.

Took a look at it, looks really nice! Thanks for the share


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steelandchrome

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Might be an odd one considering how much a lot of people on here hate wasting time watching TV, movies, sports, etc... But mine would probably be an XBMC Mart box. http://a.co/0W85rVk It was $99 and once connected to the internet you can watch basically any sports event (PPV events like UFC included) or your favorite football team that is not shown in your state.. You can search and stream movies (sometimes still in theaters), you can watch shows only available on netflix, HBO, etc... all for FREE through the box. I would say I have consumed at least $2500 in content I would have had to pay for in the two years I have had it.
Disclaimer it can take a while to search through titles and channels to find what you want and sometimes the quality is not there and you have to deal with 720 vs 1080 but if you are going to waste the time watching anyways it is worth it.
 

keith4444

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getStencil.com - an app for making things up pretty quick. Got it on a lifetime Sumo deal, been having a lot of fun with it.
Just went to see if this deal on Appsumo was still active but it’s finished :( I think Appsumo is value in itself. Bought a few things from there now on lifetime deals which are super cheap!
 

Autobahn1985

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TBH, first thing that comes to mind is "The 4 Hour Work Week"... It is not better than TMF , it is NOT... But it was the first book that turned me away from the fastlane and got me to start my first own business...

And, most recently, the 2,5k € I paid for my Surface Laptop. Makes working so much easier, I just hate apple technology, and this is the first windows computer that is mobile but also renders my videos while I work on wordpress... Great! :D Saves my an average of 1 hour per video I render because of faster rendering, and I can do it wherever I want!
 
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RichieS

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An Instant Pot for me, it's been a massive time (and hassle) saver for eating healthily.

Really simple to use, don't have to keep an eye on the cooking, consistent results and keeps food warm until ready to eat. Inexpensive as well.
 

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NuclearPuma

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The book that opened me up to the direction I want to go: "The 4 hour work week". This book set me on the path to begin consuming books from reading zero books to reading over ten in a year.

Best value that wasn't a book: Amazon Prime and convenience of kindle e-books.

Also, there was some free material by a guru that boosted my confidence and I went into my bosses office and negotiate a $1,500 bonus I wouldn't have otherwise gotten.... so for 15-20 minutes of my time and the balls to ask, I made $1,500. I never purchased any of this gurus courses but I'd say that free content was pretty valuable.
 

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This sounds very high-maintenance, but about 6 months I paid $400 to have my eyebrows microbladed. It is the best money I ever spent. Not only do I have more confidence (and am more likely to leave the house without any makeup at all) but it saves me at least 5-10 minutes in the morning, which when our time is super limited, is a huge deal! I'm always in favor of paying money to save time... another good value is the cleaners we hired to come clean our house weekly. Now I have several more hours on the weekend to spend on money-producing activities. OUTSOURCE OUTSOURCE OUTSOURCE!
 
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SouthernCharm

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This sounds very high-maintenance, but about 6 months I paid $400 to have my eyebrows microbladed. It is the best money I ever spent. Not only do I have more confidence (and am more likely to leave the house without any makeup at all) but it saves me at least 5-10 minutes in the morning, which when our time is super limited, is a huge deal! I'm always in favor of paying money to save time... another good value is the cleaners we hired to come clean our house weekly. Now I have several more hours on the weekend to spend on money-producing activities. OUTSOURCE OUTSOURCE OUTSOURCE!

Since you've thrown this out there - I have to agree. It might sound a bit surface, but if it gives you peace of mind and additional self-confidence, those are two worthwhile returns. I was balding in my mid-twenties and decided it was time to either go with a full-shaved head to avoid the George Costanza look or try a hair transplant. It was tough for me because it is one of those few things in life that you can't change even if you are willing to put in the work, change your eating/lifestyle habits, etc. It just is what it is.

The hair transplant was obviously more costly, but ended up being the path I chose. I am now beyond happy with my hairline and don't have to constantly worry about covering up my giant dome with baseball caps or combing over my hair to hide bald spots. The peace of mind it provided definitely made it one of my best investments to date.
 

Autobahn1985

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Just went to see if this deal on Appsumo was still active but it’s finished :( I think Appsumo is value in itself. Bought a few things from there now on lifetime deals which are super cheap!
What he said! Maybe it is not the BEST value, but with AppSumo, you always get PRETTY GOOD value!
 

Arthur Charles

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One of the best value I paid for recently is the Xiaomi Mi Band. I really could not care less about how many steps I have taken during the day, or how many hours of deep sleep I had during the night. I don't use it as a "fitness tracker", but rather as a useful reminder for many things.

xiaomi-mi-band-1.jpg


I bought it for $10 online 2 years ago. It is a very simple device which can vibrate and has 3 LEDs to indicate different things (I don't use them at all though). No screen. Battery life is 30 days, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.

Here is what I use it for:
- It wakes me up in the morning with a discreet vibration pattern that I have set. I hate the sound of the alarm clock, this has been a game changer!
- I have it vibrate to notify me of incoming calls, so I can leave my phone away from me most of the time. You can set it to notify you of pretty much any notification on your phone, for specific apps or contacts.
- I use it a lot as a timer. Yeah, it's useful for cooking pasta, but also for focusing on tasks. For example, I set a timer for 25 minutes, leave my phone and computer away, and read a book for 25 minutes straight, nothing else. The soft vibration reminds me that time is up :) This is useful for quick naps too.

There you have it. At this price, it offers a battery life no fitness tracker can compete with. It is lightweight and you can get different bands if you'd like. You can take a shower with it, no problem. I really find this band to be of pretty good value. Of course, I use it for basic stuff, but it still offers the classic fitness tracking features (heart-rate, sleep tracking, steps count...). Since you can choose different vibration patterns for specific notifications, you can use repeating reminders for routines ("time to write in your journal"), break bad habits ("stop biting your nails!"), or any other idea you might come up with ("take your medication every day at 8 pm"). Of course, the more you use it, the less battery life you'll get out of it.
 
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Last edited:

NaPal

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Already mentioned, but if you don't have an SSD, get one!
I'll even offer to start a side hustle on this and upgrade your machine myself for a small fee :)
813dePpUlFL._SL1500_.jpg


Also a History Museum membership.
For $100/yr. I can take my whole family to mueseums and science centers around the country for free. For example; I'm in Cleveland and use it in Orlando.
 

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That £20 a month gym membership when I lived in Manchester. I used to go every night after working 12 hour shifts. One night when I was on the threadmill watching the tv, a show was on about Duncan Bannatyne. How he came from nothing to a millionaire. It changed my way of thinking forever and I knew then that I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Already mentioned, but if you don't have an SSD, get one!

As a techno novice insofar as hardware, WHY should I get one? What am I missing?
 
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TheCj

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As a techno novice insofar as hardware, WHY should I get one? What am I missing?
Upgrading/Replacing a regular type hard drive with a solid state drive will give a huge speed boost. From computer booting up in seconds instead of minutes, to the overall computer being more responsive faster opening programs etc..
Solid State Drives is similar/same kind of storage used in micro sd memory cards that you can find in digital camera's, smartphones etc.. no moving parts.
 

NaPal

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Upgrading/Replacing a regular type hard drive with a solid state drive will give a huge speed boost. From computer booting up in seconds instead of minutes, to the overall computer being more responsive faster opening programs etc..
Solid State Drives is similar/same kind of storage used in micro sd memory cards that you can find in digital camera's, smartphones etc.. no moving parts.

Job well done sir [emoji106]


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MTF

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As a techno novice insofar as hardware, WHY should I get one? What am I missing?

It's been the biggest upgrade technical-wise for me in my business. Each time I got a new laptop, in the beginning it was super fast and then, several months after, it would start booting up slowly, sometimes taking up to several minutes (I could literally go make some tea in the meantime). It was also getting slower and slower with multiple browser tabs opened or several programs running at once. I wasted a lot of time waiting for the HDD to process stuff (and a lot of expletives were thrown around, too).

With SSD, none of it happens. It's been over a year and my laptop is as fast as it was on the first day. Now I can't imagine going back to HDD. It's dinosaur technology.
 
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Arthur Charles

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As a techno novice insofar as hardware, WHY should I get one? What am I missing?
Upgrading/Replacing a regular type hard drive with a solid state drive will give a huge speed boost.
With SSD, none of it happens. It's been over a year and my laptop is as fast as it was on the first day. Now I can't imagine going back to HDD. It's dinosaur technology.
100% accurate. In 2011 I bought a new computer and decided to get rid of the internal CD player and install an SSD in its place. The system runs on the SSD and I can store files in the regular hard-drive. It's been more than 7 years and I can't complain, my computer still runs like a beast.
 

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SSD is by far the biggest/best hardware upgrade for the money that 99% of people will notice. Coming from doing IT for 5 years, definitely get one.
 

NaPal

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@MJ DeMarco here's a video by Samsung on an SSD vs. harddrive comparison. A little lengthy but it hits all the important info.

Once you have a PC with an SSD, it's painful to use a PC with a harddrive. I would venture to say that SSD's allow you to me more productive every day since computer tasks are completed quicker.

More speed = more productive = more action......meh

 
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JAJT

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As a techno novice insofar as hardware, WHY should I get one? What am I missing?

For a non-marketing video example, here's one I made in a similar thread a while back:

View: https://youtu.be/PCRAxeROOWw


That's my desktop PC going from fully off to fully opening Photoshop (one of the "heaviest" programs most people would typically load) in 40 seconds.

SSD hard drives virtually eliminate all waiting you normally do on a PC. It is easily the biggest time and frustration saver you can possibly invest into a computer or laptop.

It used to be that if you wanted a faster computer you got more RAM, a faster processor, a new video card, etc... but literally none of that matters if your hard drive is slower than them.

With a normal hard drive - you spend a LOT of time waiting for programs to load and run. An SSD removes the loading bottleneck on just about everything. You go from waiting around a lot to basically never waiting for anything.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Upgrading/Replacing a regular type hard drive with a solid state drive will give a huge speed boost.

It's been the biggest upgrade technical-wise for me in my business.

my computer still runs like a beast.

just don't see losing a job as a risk.

SSD is by far the biggest/best hardware upgrade for the money that 99% of people will notice. Coming from doing IT for 5 years, definitely get one.

would venture to say that SSD's allow you to me more productive every day since computer tasks are completed quicker.

SSD hard drives virtually eliminate all waiting you normally do on a PC

Damn this thread. Looks like I'll be spending some more $$$. :blush:
 

Bhanu

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For me it came free . It started with reading a blog called Bold and Determined .Very good content except the misogynist part . That blog suggested a book called Fastlane Millionaire ...I purchased it ..read it and now hustling side by side to get rid of financial shackle. The Book lead me to the Fastlane Forum ..here I found such a great content ..its like finding treasure .
So yes I got the best thing in my life from a blog and that too for free :)
 
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GravyBoat

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@MJ DeMarco depending on if you have a desktop or laptop, you may want to get a USB3.0 to SATA adapter for this swap, since you are "cloning" your hard drive. If you have a desktop, your PC should have an extra SATA cable (might be plugged into the CD disk drive, you can unplug while doing this and use that one). If you have a laptop, the easiest way is to use USB3.0 to SATA for the swap.

If you have any questions or run into issues post up on here.
 

MJ DeMarco

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If you have any questions or run into issues post up on here.

I have an iMac Desktop running Sierra. To be honest, I'm scared shitless opening up my Mac and messing with the internals. I already Googled it and feel old and lost. :blank:
 

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