TeamViewer and Quicken have both already transitioned to SaaS only, and it sucks.I _hate_ software leases or subscriptions, because I'm never through paying.
If I _BUY_ a car, it's mine; I can keep it. Other than gas and maintenance, I don't have to keep paying. When I _BUY_ my house, it's mine, with the same caveats. If I rent an apartment or lease a car or subscribe to SaaS software, when I stop paying, it disappears and I have nothing to show for my money.
If I _BUY_ a car, it's mine; I can keep it. Other than gas and maintenance, I don't have to keep paying. When I _BUY_ my house, it's mine, with the same caveats. If I rent an apartment or lease a car or subscribe to SaaS software, when I stop paying, it disappears and I have nothing to show for my money.
Unfortunately, this is the mistaken way most people think. Unless your car lasts forever, buying one is financially equivalent to renting. The only differences are how much you pay and how the payments are structured (and who is responsible for repairs).
Say you buy a car for $40,000.
You use it for 5 years, paying $4000 in maintenance and replacements for things which wear out (tires, battery, etc).
After 5 years, you sell it for $20,000.
Your purchased car has cost you a net total of $40,000 + $4,000 - $20,000 = $24,000. Divide it by the 60 months you owned it, and it cost you $400/mo. From a financial standpoint, you did the same thing as renting the car for $400/mo, except you just paid it all up-front and put down a $20,000 deposit which you got back when you sold it.
Most financial transactions are actually rates, and directly comparable to renting. e.g. People tend to think of their salary as an amount. But it's actually a rate. If you make $50k, it's actually $50k per year. You pay $3 for a cup of coffee. But if you buy a cup every weekday, you're actually paying $780 per year. If you bought Office for $200, and upgraded every other version (about 6 years), you actually paid $33.33 per year.
Very few financial transactions are amounts. Pretty much only stuff which you have to buy once in a lifetime.
The other economists yell a lot when I point out that capital is just an abstraction of labor, and that land is just an available resource that allows different labor.
Capital--machines, human knowledge and skills, etc.--has to be built and maintained. You have to build machines, power machines, maintain machines. You have to teach and train humans, and replace them with trained humans as they retire out. That's a labor cost. It's labor using a "tool", and the tool requires labor to produce, and occasi
Generally, when you actually rent as opposed to buying-which-is-financially-equivalent-to-renting, you end up indirectly paying for an expensive insurance against a small risk. Buying also means you get to choose your own schedule, whereas with renting you are generally forced to stick with the agreed term. There is a risk that some kind of unforeseen life change means that the originally planned 5 years become 3, or that you cannot afford to enter into a new contract at the end of the 5 year term, leaving
If you're only buying a car to use it while it's less than 5 years old, sure. I try to go for 15 years of ownership if I bought new. 10 years if I bought used. There's no way you can beat that by renting, even with occasional massive repair bills.
That's one way to think about it, but using your car analogy - I still own the car. Say I get to the end of year 5, and decide that there's really no reason not to keep the car for longer. At this point, I don't have to keep forking over $400/mo or the car goes *poof*. It's my car, I own it, and the only cost will be the the upkeep, and perhaps if I'm thinking ahead a decrease in the eventual resale - though I won't realize that until I actually sell the car.
The difference is that after purchasing the car, you are free to do whatever you want with it... You can modify it, you can keep it in good condition or choose not to carry out repairs (where a rental company will insist that even minor scratches be repaired), you can dismantle it and sell the individual components, you could park it somewhere and never use it. You can even buy a rusty old wreck and restore it to pristine condition (fairly common thing to do with classic cars)...
As for your $3 cup of coffee,
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
- Henry Spencer, University of Toronto Unix hack
Anf Two Others (Score:5, Informative)
TeamViewer and Quicken have both already transitioned to SaaS only, and it sucks.I _hate_ software leases or subscriptions, because I'm never through paying.
If I _BUY_ a car, it's mine; I can keep it. Other than gas and maintenance, I don't have to keep paying. When I _BUY_ my house, it's mine, with the same caveats. If I rent an apartment or lease a car or subscribe to SaaS software, when I stop paying, it disappears and I have nothing to show for my money.
And "NEW!!!" features in SaaS offerings are gene
Re:Anf Two Others (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately, this is the mistaken way most people think. Unless your car lasts forever, buying one is financially equivalent to renting. The only differences are how much you pay and how the payments are structured (and who is responsible for repairs).
Your purchased car has cost you a net total of $40,000 + $4,000 - $20,000 = $24,000. Divide it by the 60 months you owned it, and it cost you $400/mo. From a financial standpoint, you did the same thing as renting the car for $400/mo, except you just paid it all up-front and put down a $20,000 deposit which you got back when you sold it.
Most financial transactions are actually rates, and directly comparable to renting. e.g. People tend to think of their salary as an amount. But it's actually a rate. If you make $50k, it's actually $50k per year. You pay $3 for a cup of coffee. But if you buy a cup every weekday, you're actually paying $780 per year. If you bought Office for $200, and upgraded every other version (about 6 years), you actually paid $33.33 per year.
Very few financial transactions are amounts. Pretty much only stuff which you have to buy once in a lifetime.
Re: (Score:2)
The other economists yell a lot when I point out that capital is just an abstraction of labor, and that land is just an available resource that allows different labor.
Capital--machines, human knowledge and skills, etc.--has to be built and maintained. You have to build machines, power machines, maintain machines. You have to teach and train humans, and replace them with trained humans as they retire out. That's a labor cost. It's labor using a "tool", and the tool requires labor to produce, and occasi
Re: (Score:2)
Generally, when you actually rent as opposed to buying-which-is-financially-equivalent-to-renting, you end up indirectly paying for an expensive insurance against a small risk. Buying also means you get to choose your own schedule, whereas with renting you are generally forced to stick with the agreed term. There is a risk that some kind of unforeseen life change means that the originally planned 5 years become 3, or that you cannot afford to enter into a new contract at the end of the 5 year term, leaving
Re: (Score:3)
If you're only buying a car to use it while it's less than 5 years old, sure. I try to go for 15 years of ownership if I bought new. 10 years if I bought used. There's no way you can beat that by renting, even with occasional massive repair bills.
Re: (Score:2)
That's one way to think about it, but using your car analogy - I still own the car. Say I get to the end of year 5, and decide that there's really no reason not to keep the car for longer. At this point, I don't have to keep forking over $400/mo or the car goes *poof*. It's my car, I own it, and the only cost will be the the upkeep, and perhaps if I'm thinking ahead a decrease in the eventual resale - though I won't realize that until I actually sell the car.
Now, if it was CaaS (cars as a service), I'd h
Re: (Score:2)
The difference is that after purchasing the car, you are free to do whatever you want with it...
You can modify it, you can keep it in good condition or choose not to carry out repairs (where a rental company will insist that even minor scratches be repaired), you can dismantle it and sell the individual components, you could park it somewhere and never use it. You can even buy a rusty old wreck and restore it to pristine condition (fairly common thing to do with classic cars)...
As for your $3 cup of coffee,