Reply to: How much to spend on tech per year?

[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.

[Lumiere]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[Jog On]

I just bought a whole new system in parts, cost about £800.

I pay for monthly web hosting, hosted exchange email, and a VPS server.

I also have a virtual assistant (about £100/month) and a couple of monthly subscriptions to some online marketing/social media services (onlywire). I have affiliate websites that I put through the LTD and get the VA to work on them while I'm contracting

Thinking about getting the MS partner MSDN type thing for about £300/year for all the latest software to evaluate and mess around with.

[Wanderer]

So is a new laptop or PC each year OTT? I could make a good business case, as I need to up to date on things as a infrastructure architect, I need to be on top of whats what.

If you have a liking for shiny gadgets and all the latest kit for business use then you are free to get your business to pay for it and claim it back against company profits.

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.

[VectraMan]

Where did you get VS 2010 Pro for £280? The ones I have seen at this price are upgrades.

It was an upgrade. That's the special offer upgrade from Standard (I bought VS2005 Standard about 5 years ago).

I think MS are shooting themselves in the foot making their developer tools so expensive (and you can't even buy Standard anymore). I needed to buy it as (unfortunately) I still need to do stuff with MFC, which is only in Pro. Otherwise I've been using the free Express version for C++ quite effectively.

As a professional Windows developer investing in the tools that the clients are almost certainly going to be using makes sense. Not having Visual Studio is like a window cleaner making do without a bucket to save money.

[rd409]

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.
Why waste money on a MS product that sucks out performance from your machine. If at all I need to use, I then go on and use VS Express edition.
If you are still not convinced, and want to go for Visual Studio, register for the beta releases, and you can get a full version for free.

[Scrag Meister]

I bought VS2010 Pro this year (£280), but that's all. I bought a desktop in 07, and a laptop in 08, both of which I still use and upgraded the hard disks in the desktop last year as well as buying both Windows 7. So it's probably averaged about £500 per year.

Where did you get VS 2010 Pro for £280? The ones I have seen at this price are upgrades.