Real Personal Finance for a Life Without Limits!

Two weeks ago Google Docs unveiled a new feature which allows users to upload any file type to their account, essentially making Google Docs your flash drive in the cloud. We all have emailed a file to ourselves for quick access, but this is Google’s way of clearing your inbox and organizing your life for free.

Since it was first introduced in 2006, Docs has shown that it is the future of word processing. With its tight integration with Gmail, Google is in for the long haul when it comes to how average people like you or I write, present, and organize our lives.

Google even has an answer for those people who are afraid of relying on the internet to hold their files. Google Gears allows you to have access to your files when offline by syncing them with your computer’s hard drive.

I’ve been a Docs user for almost two years now and I suggest them to all of my friends for the speed, easy Gmail integration, and cloud computing capabilities. In college I would create a Presentation (Power Point) for a speech and instead of putting it on a flash drive, I would just open it on the computer in the classroom. I could use Docs Document (Word) to start a paper in the library, edit it in my dorm room, and then finalize it that weekend when I visited my parents at home.

3 computers, 1 document, and no worrying about a faulty flash drive.

Right now, Google Docs offers uploads for any file up to 250 MB and you’ll get 1 GB of storage for non-Docs files like pictures, videos, or original files you don’t want to convert.

The best part? You can get more storage for dirt cheap. $0.25 for 1 GB every year.

With Google’s growth it’s also more than possible that the amount of free storage won’t dramatically increase over the next couple of years. When Gmail started in 2004 it offered 1 GB and now it’s at 7400 MB.

Google Docs could do away with flash drives in the near future.

So how can Google save you money?

- Does away with word processing software

Savings: $150 (Microsoft Office 2007)

Docs has the capabilities to save and send files as Word documents (.doc), Open Document formats (.odf), Rich Text format (.rtf), and PDFs. This way you can send a file to a friend, colleague, professor, or boss and you can customize it to their computer standards. You don’t have to spend time worrying about compatibility issues.

Microsoft Office includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Google Docs has their own version of each of these programs. They’re stripped down, efficient versions of Microsofts, but they’ll fit the needs of 98% of people who need to use these programs for their daily lives.

Would I write a manuscript on Docs? No. But you’ll be hard pressed to find situations where Docs won’t fill your word processing void.

- No need for flash drives

Savings: $50 (assuming 5, $10 flash drives)

Flash drives are like Pringles, you can’t eat just one. But in the case of flash drives, “you can’t have just one”.

I have at least 3-5 flash drives in my apartment at any given time. They’re cheap and easy, but they’re becoming unnecessary for the types of files that Docs can handle. I don’t see there being any reason I’ll ever buy another one with the new Doc’s upload capabilities. They accept any file and it’s even easier not having to worry about losing the flash drive, getting it damaged, or it breaking.

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Docs may take some getting used to for people who have relied on desktop word processing software for decades. Regardless, the Docs team is innovating online word processing at a rapid speed and pushing out exciting features almost weekly. If that’s not enough for you, at least you won’t have to buy any more flash drives or software that sets you back a couple hundred bucks.

Check it out here: Google Docs

This article was contributed by Austin, who lives in Japan where he teaches English and writes about personal finance for twenty-somethings at Foreigner’s Finances.