I love the Internet. It’s helped me meet awesome friends and helped me start my business when I was laid off last year. But one thing that has surprised me in a negative way about the Internet is the secret cost of being active on it!
Even though I make my living online, here are a few things that have directly lead to increased costs in my life that surprised me:
- Hosting costs and URLs. I spend about $15 per month in hosting costs and about $60 per year in URLs for maintaining my online spaces. Now, these are very low operating costs for what I get out of them, but still those are bills I never had 10 years ago!
- Back pain expenses for chiropractor and physical therapy. This is my fault, but I spend a lot of time on the computer. Poor posture or even good posture with long hours leads to lower back strain and upper back discomfort, for which I go to a chiropractor and sometimes physical therapy for. That costs $40 a pop, which happens once a month even though I wish it happened more.
- Internet. We’d have an internet bill either way, but working online a lot means the need for reliable home internet from a provider like cox internet. I will never go without home internet. That costs $55 per month, or more when Verizon jacks the cost up without notice.
- Social media management. I also spend $10 per month on BufferApp to help me corral my social media profiles. It’s not a life-or-death expense, but social networking is incredibly important. BufferApp makes it easier to schedule updates and share other people’s updates, which in turns leaves more time to work.
- Online banking. I do a lot of billing through PayPal, which takes a fee of each transaction, and my online bank charges $1 per month to add the capability to take photos of checks to deposit them into a business account. These small fees add up!
- Online storage. I also recently upgraded my Google Drive at a cost of $1.99 per month to store tons of data and photos that were weighing down our computer. Costly!
All of these things are products and services that didn’t exist in my mind 10 years ago! It’s funny how awesome it is to embrace technology and then look back at where you were before… though I wouldn’t mind seeing a glimpse of what my wallet looked like back then without all of these expenses!
Do you spend a lot of money being active online? Where do your expenses come from?
Yea, I spend a lot to stay active online. Aside from my home internet bill, I too use my phone to be online. It seems like I can’t live without internet. It’s been part of my life for a long time and kind get used to this.
Online banking is really increasing my costs and I accept that is how it works and I get used to it. I just do some strategy in how I can make the cost less or minimal.
It’s definitely our choice whether we embrace this technology. But, I think what is surprising the most is that most people tend to go with the flow and to follow the trend.
Most of the expenses come from internet and back pain expenses as I spend my time with computer more than 8 hours a day.
I am a fan of BufferApp. I think it’s one of the best apps related to social media management. This one is what I prefer because not only that it is cheaper, but it’s user-friendly. Spending $10 on this is really worth it.
Me too! Internet has been part of my life ever since. I think I could not take it and make it a day without it. Happy New Year!
Sarah,
That really stinks about the back pain bills! Have you considered looking into another chair or a standing desk? I know several folks with back issues that swear by the standing desk. Just a thought….
Also, the $15 for hosting a month is expensive. But, I notice your website is quite zippy. Maybe the extra expense is worth it. Do you mind if I ask who you use?
I love the Internet! I care how much I spend on it because it’s my money. But, I try as much as possible to earn more than I spend less in the Internet.
I think it’s fine to spend more on internet as long as you get higher income out of it. Just take advantage of the Internet. That is all that matters to me.
Without the Internet, I think I couldn’t take it and live. Haha! That’s true because it’s like everything requires the Internet nowadays.
These are really surprising costs to be active online. But, I think we have to assess how much time we are spending in computer whether it’s worth it or not.
Online banking is just very helpful as I do online business. It’s very transact nowadays and easy to deal with lots of customers than ever before.
I work online as much as possible just to take advantage not only my time but also the Internet. It’s sad that few only knows how to get the value of the Internet the most.
I spend lots of money on the Internet. That’s why I always make sure that I can profit out of it. I use it for my side hustles such as writing online and testing websites.
I agree 100% with neck and back pain. I work in the internet industry and blog by night. It’s really tough on the body.