rusty__

I am a fairly technical person but not a programmer. I am the end user of a large product within our company that I spend a good 5 hours a day using. I think it's fundamentally built on sand, inefficient and could do with a root-and-branch overhaul.

I have an idea of all of the problems with it and ideas for solutions from a birds eyehigh level. The software team are up for making changes but I need to come up with a good detailed proposal of what direction we need to go in.

There are about 5 different big things I'd like to change so I was going to create a document with those 5 sections and within each section highlighting the areas to be changed, breaking down:

- motivation for change - exact problem as I see it - proposed solution (from end user perspective) - pros of making that change as I see them - cons of making that change as I see them

Is this the kind of information a software team/product manager could use to go ahead and start planning a project to overhaul this? If not, what better approach could I take to get some momentum on this?

I work for a small company doing creative work. At times, when a low budget project comes in for example, we send the whole thing away to be done by a cheaper outsource vendor without telling the client, pass the work off as our own and cream off the thin profit that remains. Management would say we're still manageing the whole thing and involved in the process.

I'm not sure ethically I can really support this any longer, but then again I understand it's a tough world out there and we're just a small company trying to stay alive out here.

How do you feel about outsourcing whether it's just some bits of work or entire projects.

I don't know how to spend money.

Growing up in a family that wasn’t exactly poor but never had much spare money to go around we lived within our means and sometimes tightened our belts and went without. I’m incredibly grateful to my parents for raising me in a way to not waste money or live ostentatiously.

I wear the same basic t-shirt, jeans and sneakers type combo everyday and have no need to upgrade to $300 jeans or $100 extra soft cotton t shirts. My OnePlus3T still works great. I go on a road trip vacation every year and explore a foreign country every few years. I don’t really have the work schedule that allows for 1+ month long vacations or multiple trips abroad each year. I like to cook and have some good equipment for that but don’t see the value of upgrading to fancy saucepans and skillets when my $30 cast iron works great. I live in a nice apartment in a city that has public transport.

The point i’m making is I have enough. Yet as I watch my bank balance grow as I earn this typical tech-job salary that I could have only dreamed of 15 years ago I leave myself with the strange problem of not knowing how to spend money. I’ve cautiously asked friends about this kind of thing but “I’ll spend it for you!1!! hur dur” is obviously unhelpful. I’m really trying to not sound brattish as I know many people live pay check to pay check but I really feel like I actually might have some kind of phobia or aversion to spending money that could be developing in to a real problem.

I search online for something like “how to start spending money” and all I get are articles saying “how to stop spending money!” which apparently the rest of the world seems to be doing. I’m trying to do the opposite and start spending to enjoy the fruits of my hard work over all these years.

How do you adjust your lifestyle as your salary grows and you find yourself in the incredibly fortunate position of being able to upgrade to more when you don’t really need/want to?