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When you bring something home from a jewelry
store, how much is the empty box worth?
Nothing.
It's exactly the same with computers. It ain't the box that counts;
it's what's inside the box.
Computer "boxes" today are really
cheap. But inside is more and more information, and that's the
part that has value, a real value in dollars and cents.
Your pictures, your music, your spreadsheets,
your address book…all have value. Some of it you downloaded
for free. But your time is worth something, in dollars per hour.
And that Internet connection costs you some number of dollars
per month. So even free downloads are not free. And if you have
a few songs in your iTunes collection, you know downloads
are not free.
Add to that the software you had to buy.
Even if it came pre-installed on your computer, that doesn't
mean it was free, it only means the price wasn't itemized in
the bill. So add in the cost of the software you had to buy.
Finally there are the documents you created
yourself. The essays, the spreadsheets, the drawings, the letters
you wrote, and all the work you do on your computer. These
are the most valuable pieces of data on your computer because
they cost you time, a lot of time, and your time is worth money.
Cutting to the bottom line, the data in
your computer are worth about 35¢ a megabyte. This averages
the "expensive" documents with the "free"
stuff.
My computer has 29.2 gigabytes of stuff
on it: 29,200 megabytes.
Multiplying that by 35¢ gives $10,220 for the data!
Add to that the cost of the box.
My computer is worth $11,000! I had no idea! Don't tell
the IRS.
I bet you'd be surprised too.
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