Repair or Replace?

Having headache of whether repair or replace your broken goods?

Sometimes, we don't know whether we should buy a new one, or try our luck to replace goods. Yes, I would have such problem of decide so. If we are bad luck, end up the we pay even more of repair before we buy new one. If we are good luck, we just save the money of buying a new one.

I would say we will take certain risk when we repair the goods. Let say I bought a Notebook on last 3 years ago and the default 2-years warranty was expired. The hard disk was malfunctioned and I replaced a new one with RM250. 1 month later, the DVDR-W is malfunctioned, I replaced a good one using RM380. And 4 months time, the notebook LCD broken, and I replaced it with RM700. Fine, and after 6 months, the motherboard broke down, and I need to spend RM1,800 to replace a new one. Since I already spent RM1,330 on the Notebook along this year, should I still repair the board, or just buy a new one?

Lifespan of a man, it's a curve!

Well, risk always can be calculated. Most of the cases, we can just weight based on the following simple questions:
1. It's the new one worth?
2. What is the total cost of repair?
3. What's its lifespan?
4. Can we live without it?
5. The green impact?

How true they are. Let's use the Notebook example just now. A low/medium end Notebook lifespan is about 3-5 years (I'm talking without extra luck here). Since the Notebook is already 3 years old, the lifespan in fact is actually ended. Since a new Notebook with better specifications only cost us about RM2,000, why we still bother to spend more than 10% to change a malfunctioned hard disk?

If the goods are broken within the lifespan, we can always replace it, provided the cost of repair is far below the new one, like 30%? Just apply the questions above and you will find the answer you want.

We save on how much we spend, not how much we save. Hah! I don't get it.

In fact, we can always understand the goods lifespan, or request to extend the warranty of the goods when we purchase a good. If we get the picture clear, we will able to handle this issue easier.

Below are the list of goods lifespan for your reference (taken from Personal Money Oct 2008).

	Lifespan (years)
Appliances
Dryers	13
Refrigerators	13
Dishwashers	9
Microwave oven	9
Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets	50
Masonry
Brick walls	100
Coutertop
Cultured marble countertops	20
Natural stone countertops	Lifetime
Electrical
Electrical accessories and lighting controls	10+
Flooring
Carpet	8 to 10
Marble, slate and granite flooring	100
Home technology
Built-in audio system	20
Security systems	5 to 10
Fixtures
Lavatory	20+
Flooring
Laminate	15 to 25
Tile	75 to 100
Paint
Exterior and interior	15+

For the rests of the goods not listed above, you can always check them from the Internet or different merchants.
Cheers.