Maybe you just cashed in your trust fund. Maybe you just found a crusty $20 underneath your seat on the Purple Line. The point is, you’re in possession of some cold, hard cash and browsing the Internet for something shiny to spend it on. But what purchase can you make without instant buyer’s remorse? What’s going to be obsolete in a month? Or worse, what’s facing a huge price drop soon? Let me take care of it for you.

I want to buy…a tablet. You want to browse Netflix more comfortably, or, maybe you just want to fit in with the cool kids who bring their iPads to lecture. The first question you’re asking is probably “Should I buy an iPad?” The answer is “no.” Rumors suggest a new iPad will be announced in March. Even if having the latest and greatest isn’t your thing, the current iPad 2 is certainly going to drop in price. If you’re interested in an Android tablet, the situation is a little more confusing. I would hesitantly suggest waiting on that purchase as well. There’s a new tablet coming out from Asus in a few months called the Transformer Prime 700T. With a more-than-1080p display on a sleek, thin body, a fancy processor and an equally fancy Android “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system, this Asus tablet is a critic’s favorite.

I want to buy…a new laptop. Now we’re dealing with some real money. The question is, Mac or PC? I’m not here to take sides, but in the Interest of honesty, I’m typing this on a fall 2011 13-inch Macbook Pro with an i7 processor. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best bang for your Apple buck. There isn’t much buzz about Apple releasing a Macbook or Macbook Pro update any time soon, but it’s becoming increasingly likely that the next update will be a fairly drastic one. That update will probably happen this year. Because we’re talking about a $1000+ purchase, I’d recommend waiting. If you’re a Windows kind of person, I’d go for the HP Folio 13, or as I call it, the HP Macbook Pro. If that joke wasn’t obtuse enough for you, let me explain: the Folio 13 is pretty much a carbon copy of the Macbook Pro aluminum unibody design. It’s very sexy and about $200 cheaper than the equivalent Macbook. In fact, because of its solid state drive (which will speed up loading times for programs and boot-up times) it’s even a little cheaper.

I want to buy…a desktop. Because you go to Northwestern, I’m going to assume you’re kind of a nerd. My advice to you, if you’re looking for a less portable computing solution, is to build your own. There are countless websites dedicated to this; Google “build a PC” if you’re feeling helpless. You can build a computer worth $1000 for half the price or less. It’s not a tremendously complicated process, either- it’s more like playing with Legos than being a computer scientist.