Yesterday, I finally took the plunge and joined millions of other people and bought a Nintendo Wii. Like many personal finance bloggers, I’m here to blog about the purchase. However, this is not a post to justify my purchase. In fact, I know it was well worth it, as indicative of me purchasing the machine. This post is about why I think you should buy one too.It actually took me since Nov 19, 2006 (the day the Wii was released) until yesterday to finally decide that this game console was worth the $249.99 + tax. Since that day a year ago, I have been contemplating whether or not I should get this game console. All this time, I thought it was a luxury purchase. It is $250 that can be put into a savings account, or into investments (like at least 25 shares of ETFC with some $$ to spare) I keep thinking.
The thought of a personal finance blogger buying luxury goods kept me from purchasing the console until a couple days ago when I realized that the machine is not an expense but rather an investment.
Exercise
Since I bought the Nintendo Wii, I have moved around much more than I would otherwise. This is good for me because I basically sit in front of the computer all day now, gathering weight day by day. Although it is not a conventional way of doing exercise, whatever works is fine right? Actually, this is working out so well that my fiancée is offering to buy me another game to keep me interested.
Spending Opportunity Lost
With me playing the Wii at home, it keeps my mind off other activities that makes me spend money. All the time that I’m playing the Wii, I am not buying a drink at Starbucks, browsing in the mall, or going to see the movies. Although the Wii is a bigger upfront investment, it actually saves me money down the line. I know some of you might not agree, but many of my expenses are impulsive. If I’m occupied with something else, I won’t be giving myself a chance to accidentally spend money.
Family Time
This is perhaps the most important benefit of buying the Wii. My fiancée, like most other female, do not really play video games. However, she is very attracted to the Nintendo Wii. We had so much fun playing the game console today that I wish I bought the Wii months ago. This gives us yet another past time that we share, and I’m sure spending more quality time together will indirectly strengthen our relationship even more.
Like many of you, I have thought about the justification of buying Nintendo Wii time and time again. I was focusing my decision on the money aspect of making the purchase. However, the ROI of getting a Wii is not about the money but the indirect benefits. Now that I have purchased the game console, I’m proud to say that I’m very happy with my purchase and that it is the best investment I have made this year.
Thank You Nintendo.
Editor's Note: I've begun tracking my assets through Personal Capital. I'm only using the free service so far and I no longer have to log into all the different accounts just to pull the numbers. And with a single screen showing all my assets, it's much easier to figure out when I need to rebalance or where I stand on the path to financial independence.
They developed this pretty nifty 401K Fee Analyzer that will show you whether you are paying too much in fees, as well as an Investment Checkup tool to help determine whether your asset allocation fits your risk profile. The platform literally takes a few minutes to sign up and it's free to use by following this link here. For those trying to build wealth, Personal Capital is worth a look.
{ read the comments below or add one }
LOVE THE WII myself and enjoyed it until the cat ate the cord for the sensor. i have not been able to find the sensor for sale and refuse to buy a whole new system. anyone know where i can find one reasonably priced?
I, too, waited too long to get the Wii. Just received as a birthday gift last month and the family time has been awesome. Both my wife and I are extremely competive and love challenging each other, especially bowling where she “owns me”. It’s been fun and can’t wait to see what new games we can play together.
Joseph: Great to hear that your wife is also joining the gaming bandwagon 😀
The Wii is quite fun and actually any activity that you and your wife both enjoy is great.
I just got a Wii myself and the thing that made me decide on it instead of an Xbox 360 is because my wife will play a lot of the Wii games with me, whereas she probably wouldn’t touch much on the 360. So far I’m loving it – especially playing Mario Kart and Samba De Amigo with my wife.
Good post. Interesting thoughts.
Its funny that you say this about the Wii. My wife never used to like to game know I cant get her away from it which is awesome as it always bugged me that she did not play with me. Its great fun for the whole family, keeps us fit, mentally stimulated and out of trouble.
I know this is an old post, but it cracked me up so I have to respond: Despite having a strong moratorium on electronics (and especially since we already have a PS2) I just bought my Partner a Wii as an early early birthday present, for pretty much most of the justifications you listed here, plus the bonding time with our pre-teen granddaughter (pre-teens being notoriously against bonding with adults), plus it’s presumed ability to help with coordination, brain work, exercise and all things extra-important to us as middle-aged folk, plus (important to me only) to STOP THE WHINING ABOUT NOT HAVING A WII (and no, it wasn’t the 12yo doing the whining… ::grin:: )
Grow Your Assets: They are getting hard to get these days. Everyone is calling for one and all the employees are telling them to call again and never late in the weekend 🙂
I just got the Nintendo too, but was having a hard time finding it in my home state of Delaware, in Philly, or in New Jersey. Luckily, my wife spent a few weeks in NYC and found one up there for 250 plus tax. Since this is my first video game system since the Atari 2600, I’m psyched.. Great investment.
haha awsome article..
the baglady: Nintendo definitely has many good things going on right now.
I will look into Zack and Wiki. Thanks for the headsup 🙂
PersonallyFinanced: They are all $250 now so you can just go to bestbuy or gamestop to get one. Maybe the $400 is a bundle? I know Costco sells a bundle when it is in stock.
Where did you find a Wii for only $250? I thought they were like $400.
-Raj
PersonallyFinanced.com
yah. The wii is awesome. Another awesome game system is the Nintendo DS. my hubby and I are playing Zack and Wiki right now on the wii. It’s a really fun puzzle solving game.
The Dividend Guy: Actually I’m not trying to defend my purchase 🙂 I could’ve just said nothing. I was trying to get everyone else to buy one too. 🙂
Go video games. (It’s going to be hard to get my kids to stop playing in the future when I play so much haha)
Ok David – however you want to justify your purchase is fine with me 🙂 You don’t need to defend it to us – I just finished playing 30 minutes of ATV on our PS2 with my son – pure bonding time.
The Dividend Guy
Greg: Exactly my point. I feel a little sore today from all the play yesterday but it was a lot of fun. The good part is that other games should be even better since I was only playing Wii Sports.
The joys of owning your own home 🙂 Unfortunately the Wii is the first experience I have had with DDR, but I have lost 5 lbs in the first month. It doesn’t feel like I’m excersing because I’m doing what I love to do, play video games…
Greg Hall: I used to play this game years ago when my roommate had a mat for the Sega Dreamcast. It was fun times until people from our apartment complained that they thought there was an earthquake every single night 🙂
Your next game needs to be Dance Dance Revolution if you really want some excercise…. My wife and I have enjoyed it more and gotten more excercise off that one game then any of the other games that we own. Neither one of us would have ever thought that we would be good at DDR, but after playing it time and time again, we both have become pretty decent dancers. LOL