Should I Sell My Stocks To Buy New Camera Gear?

If you have investment in stocks and needing new camera gear, should you sell your stocks to buy that gear? It depends...

Many creatives in photography and videography often struggle with, "should I buy new gear?" Some resort to using credit cards if they don't have the means to pay for it up front. If you use credit cards, are you able to pay it off right away so it won't incur interest rates. Personally, I try and avoid credit cards if I am not able to pay for it right away, the amount of interest the adds up is a waste of money. 

I recently had a discussion with a fellow creative were he was talking about buying new gear, but he wants to sell some of his stocks to pay for it. He asked me what I thought about it. I told him, it depends. If the stocks have dividends, I would avoid selling them, as it grows. If it's a losing stock, and you want to off load, you can write the stock off as a loss. Buying new gear is tricky, especially, if you are freelance. If you can guarantee you will get work right away and it's consistent, then yes! Having that new gear is making you more money. But if you know it will sometimes be used, then best wait to hold off on selling stocks for new gear. It's not worth it having parked gear for a long time with out building up miles on it. 

New gear can certainly enhance the look and quality of your product. Having new gear allows you to practice ahead of time - setting up and fine tuning it. If the work all of a sudden comes knocking, and keeps coming back for more, I would definitely sell my stocks and re-invest in that new gear.