How much to spend on tech per year?

[Scrag Meister]

Don't fall into the trap of spending company money on stuff because it's "not costing you anything" because it is ultimately your money you are spending at the end of the day.

Agreed but then you aren't giving the tax to Hector, or the VAT to the VAT man if you spend over £2k, so that is a fair saving.

Being a total PC geek, my new PC will be in the region of £3220 inc VAT,
reclaim VAT on all that lot from 1 supplier = -£480
not pay 21% Corp Tax = -£575

If you also considered it from a personal point of view, if I bought the same components with income paid from above 40% threshold dividend then it comes to a whole load more saved, but of course its exclusively for business use.

Investing a few £k into something that helps me earn the money I do is a small price to pay.

[d000hg]

Why do you want to buy Visual Studio Professional anyways? I work with Eclipse and it does the job. Also use Resharper (Free or £150 depending on how you use it) and you pretty much get everything you need.

No trolling in the serious forums...

Although out of interest what plugins do you use in Eclipse to get all the visual design stuff for .NET?

[doodab]

Investing a few £k into something that helps me earn the money I do is a small price to pay.

WHS. I don't waste money but I don't penny pinch either. I have no qualms about paying for quality. It usually pays for itself in the long run.

[Spacecadet]

Last major tech purchase I made was over 3 years ago for a laptop which is still going strong and has been used on all but 1 5 month contract.
However I'm still probably spending the best part of £300 per year on other bits, upgrades, external storage etc....

As for how much should you spend? Whatever you feel is justified in getting the job done and a return made on that amount.

[northernladuk]

And seems as no one said it I do think a new PC every year is excessive, technology doesn't move that fast you need to can it every 12 months. As people have mentioned it is still out of your pocket to a certain extent.

[Scrag Meister]

WHS. I don't waste money but I don't penny pinch either. I have no qualms about paying for quality. It usually pays for itself in the long run.

When I got divorced back in 2001 I ended up leaving my PC with the kids and my ex.

Thought I'm a programmer can't earn money with a motorbike, so I sold my motorbike :GUTTED:, bought a PC and soon enough I had a motorbike again. Great ROI.

[doodab]

When I got divorced back in 2001 I ended up leaving my PC with the kids and my ex.

Thought I'm a programmer can't earn money with a motorbike, so I sold my motorbike :GUTTED:, bought a PC and soon enough I had a motorbike again. Great ROI.

I have four PCs. My last car was scrapped 2 1/2 years ago.

[rd409]

No trolling in the serious forums...

Although out of interest what plugins do you use in Eclipse to get all the visual design stuff for .NET?

My apologies if it seems like troll. It wasn't meant to be insulting or fighting. I was surprised at the notion of "buying" a VS by a contractor and that is it.

Regarding the plugins - there are plenty. The last one I used was from "Improve Technologies" and was open source project. You can find something for your use here
Plugins.

Again sorry to anyone who was offended.

[Lumiere]

Around £150, that's a new laptop every 2 years

[Matt]

I buy a laptop a year in general and all sorts of random components. My software, I pay something like £200 a year for the Microsoft development Action pack, which you can get by becoming a partner of Microsoft. You get VS pro, office, server, windows 7 ... not quite the full MSDN. And you get 10 licences generally for each OS and office 2010.
I only do this cause the area I work in changes every year and I am a microsoft specialist, so I need the latest software most of the time. Also I like having the latest tools from them.

so somewhere between £2000 and £600 a year on all tech stuff. A friend uses an umbrella company and he was told he had a limit of £1000 a year.