A few weeks ago I wrote an article titled “Money Magazine: No Credit Cards and a $5,700 PC.” I was shocked by an article in Money magazine that was lauding praise on families that had chosen to not use credit cards. That wasn’t what shocked me — that’s their choice even if I disagree with it — but the article mentioned one family, the Hutters, who spent $5,700 on a computer.
When I first read that my jaw dropped to the floor. The absurdity of lauding praise on credit, but not pointing out the fact that, uh, well, $5,700 was a bit much to pay for a computer simply stunned me.
Well, as they say, don’t believe everything you read.
Recently, Matt Hutter of MattHutter.com, sent me an e-mail.
Here’s what he had to say:
I wanted to clear up a typo in the Money magazine article you referenced below. The $5,700 I spent was actually for three PCs and a server, but somehow that was lost from the interview to the printing. I can’t complain though…the print magazine has 2 million subscribers and who knows how many people saw the website. My family and I have gotten calls all over the U.S. from friends and family who read the article.  I’m in I.T. for a career and one my friends also kindly chided me for spending $5700 on one PC. Thanks for catching that.
Well I am relieved for Matt and his family. Now my complaint is with the writing and editing staff — that’s a pretty significant difference. One computer versus three computers and a server. Now the $5,700 seems more reasonable.
Thanks to Matt for stopping by and giving us an update. He writes about personal finance on his blog, so check it out.
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oh wow… lol… that’s funny. Go Matt!
(I like the new theme!)
That happened to me once, although on a much smaller scale. I was being interviewed for my college’s weekly magazine, and I explained that my job was doing clerical work for a website. Somehow that got printed as “She got a job designing websites.” And after that, some people chided me for how my site looked – don’t I design websites for a job?
Some things just get lost in translation.
Glad to hear it wasn’t just 1 PC! That was also the most shocking piece of that article to me.