The technology-stock bubble burst in 2000, during which I lost a huge portion of my retirement funds. Four years later, after much pondering, hemming and hawing, I finally dared to leave my 20-year career in Corporate America – to devote full time to investing, in order to secure my financial future for when I am really old.
Whether or not we like it, constant technological improvements are here to stay. For the most part, I do appreciate these improvements. In our household, I cannot fathom life without our machines and robots: e.g., kitchen appliances; washer and dryer; furnace and air conditioner; and my most favorite, Mint (and its sibling, Brava) which sweeps hardwood floors daily and even mops when necessary. And, oh, how did I ever survive without my iPhone?
I have simple expectations about technology. I don’t care to know how it works; I just want it to work the way I expect, saving time and letting me do other things that are more important to me.
Technology is great… when it works smoothly. One of the biggest culture shocks I faced when starting my own business, leaving behind the well-oiled machine of the corporate world as an employee, was in the technology arena. At Chrysler, whenever there was a problem with my PC and/or the server, tech support was there to jump on the issue and fix it immediately.
Fast forward to when I started a business, I thought I was pretty good about accepting the fact that I could not do it all myself. So, from early on, I made sure that I delegated the tasks for which I had no expertise, such as accounting, legal, and property management. Until I was on my own, I did not realize what a valuable service the corporate tech support had provided to the rest of us.
As the owner of a one-woman-show company (when David was still working at GM), some days, I was having to focus completely on technical issues, without being able to spend a single hour on our primary business. Talk about spinning wheels without accomplishing anything! This was not acceptable to me. So what did I do?
First, when one of our PCs needed to be replaced, we signed up for Geek Squad technical support. For an annual fee of around $100, we receive unlimited service. Upon request, they can remotely access our PCs and, for the most part, fix the issues relatively quickly – much like the way the corporate tech support used to do.
Second, when we found out about a Microsoft Store in town, we signed up for its tech support as well for about the same price. (I never cared for Microsoft’s toll-free numbers. English being my second language, it is often difficult for me to decipher what is being said when someone has a heavy accent, especially over the phone. At the store, I can at least talk to a real human being face to face, asking questions and receiving answers on the spot.)
There is some overlap between Geek Squad and Microsoft tech support but they function differently. So, depending upon the problem that occurs, we decide to use one or the other. Between the two, for the most part, a proper fix is usually identified.
Lastly, when someone uses my official email address and sends out spam (making it look as if I were the one sending it out), I learned that the quickest way to fix this type of issue is to talk to the service provider’s security department – and learn to fix it myself once and for all. Now that I know how to do it, I no longer waste much productivity at all. I feel sorry for those hackers out there who have chosen to use their brains for malicious purposes. What a waste of precious human intelligence!
In any case, David and I also signed up for Personal Training at Microsoft – which came with Office 365 – and began visiting the local store regularly. It has become our date night. Getting to know some of these technical experts has been very helpful. Much like our core business of real-estate investing, I actually began to enjoy learning to use technology effectively and more efficiently. In exchange for an hour of personal lessons each week, we are learning to save our operational time and cost as well. Technology rocks when we understand how to use it to our advantage.
Happy Investing!
