[rapht]

A primer on valuation: in many financial contexts, $1 of operating savings may be worth much more than $1 of investment.

That is because an investment is a one-off, so it's actually worth $1, but the savings are recurring, so they are worth the same number of years that a company's profits are valued. Depending on sector and investors' beliefs in the future of companies, this factor is typically in the 5-20x range. That means that $1 of savings is well worth at least $5 of investments.

Factor in anything you want!

[shermantanktop]

In an ideal org, perhaps. In many places, forming that team starts a process where it continually finds reasons to still exist, so your $1m is yearly until a reorg.

Sigh.

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If that $1 of investment doesn't yield any returns that's not an investment it's just an expense.

So yes $1 of savings is worth more than $1 of spending.

[TheNewsIsHere]

You could potentially take it as an investment loss for tax purposes. Whether that’s proper depends greatly on the circumstances surrounding how the money was accounted for and spent.