Luxuries that are worth it to you

[ATPerez]

I agree on travel.

I pinch pennies at home so when I am visiting new places I can go explore and enjoy new experiences.

[shaggy]

In what way is a Sony laptop "souped-up"? Have you overclocked it or something. IMHO you've well overpaid for the Sony name, you can buy a superior machine with better hardware for less.

Not that I need to justify my spending to you, but no, there is nothing comparable for less money.

It's a Vaio model TZ with 8 GB RAM, a 512 GB SSD, and a Radeon HD 6650M, all in a carbon-fiber package that weighs less than 2 lb and is .6" thick. It runs for 8 hours on a single battery charge. Oh, and the one I'm typing on now is purple, but I have a second one in gold and bronze.

You can get many of the components for less, but not all of them, and certainly not in a 2 lb .6" thick package.