This is a guest post from Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the adviser for The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service. He contributes one new article to Get Rich Slowly every two weeks.
With all the hullabaloo over the release of the iPhone 4 this summer, and having just paid my monthly service bill for my own iPhone (an older version, thank you very much), I thought now would be a good time to think about how much all our modern conveniences cost us.
First off, buying the new iPhone might have cost you an additional $500 on top of the actual price of the phone, if you were the silly person who paid that much to take Jordan Richardson’s place in line on the day the iPhone 4 debuted, according to an Associated Press story. Richardson then paid someone farther back in line $200 for his/her spot, making a $300 profit — but he’s still out that two hundred bucks because he couldn’t wait! I bet Jordan and his patron — now that it’s six weeks later, and a new iPhone 4 can be bought anywhere — wish they had that money back.
But even if you were so un-hip as to not wait in 11-hour long lines or pay people to move up, you are still paying a lot for that iPhone — or just about any other cell phone, for that matter. And by “you,” I mean “me,” since I have just such a gadget myself. Let’s look at the numbers:
- My monthly bill came to $73. Multiply that by 12, and you get $876 a year. But that’s not all!
- That bill was paid with after-tax money. Assuming I have a combined state and federal tax rate of 30%, I had to earn $1,251 — that’s $876/(1 – 0.30), for those curious about the math — then hand over a chunk to Uncle Sam and Aunt Virginia (my state) to have enough after-tax dollars to pay the cell-phone bill.
I’m certainly not alone in spending that much; plenty people spend even more, and that’s not including the cost of the phone itself. Given that the median household income in America is approximately $50,000 a year, it’s safe to say that there are people who are spending 2% to 3% of their annual income for the privilege of checking their Facebook pages in the movie theater while I’m trying to figure out what the heck is going on during Inception. (OK, a cell phone does more than that. For example, it might also give you brain cancer.)
But wait — there’s more!
Summon your inner grumpy old man
Cell phones are just one of the modern conveniences that we have come to think of as necessities. As Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig wrote in his thought-provoking book, Your Money and Your Brain, “In 1957, the average American earned about $10,000 (adjusted for inflation) and lived without a dishwasher, clothes dryer, television, or air conditioner” — and more people reported being “very happy” than do now. All these conveniences involve monthly fees, up-front purchases, regular repairs, accessories — or all the above.
Besides not having to live in a shoebox and lick the road clean every morning (text version for those who can’t watch video at work), kids today have all kinds of luxuries that weren’t around 50 years ago. Here’s some of the other Stuff that the past half-century has spawned to consume our money:
- Cable TV
- High-speed Internet
- Netflix
- Tiger Woods
- GPS devices
- Chocolate-covered ants
- The ShamWow!
- Computers, laptops, printers, monitors, keyboards, software, cables, mice, mice pads, speakers, and assorted USB-related doodads
- Mel Gibson
- Houses that are twice the average size of houses in the 1950s
- Satellite radio
- TVs the size of waterbeds (side note: let’s bring back the waterbed!)
- e-Book readers and the books you have to buy for them, instead of getting books free from the library (can someone explain the allure of these things, because I don’t get it)
- TiVo or other digital video recorders
- ATM fees
- Magazines profiting from the inability of Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson to control their anatomical apertures
- iPods or some other MP3 player
- Chocolate-covered scorpions
- Security and medical alert services
- Lobbyists
- Video game consoles and their $50 games
- Handheld video game devices and their $30 games
- The SlapChop!
- iRobot vacuum cleaners
- Summer camps galore (my kids and their friends attend more camps in a summer than I did during my entire childhood)
- Additional freezers and fridges in the garage (that dispense water and ice, to boot!)
- Little blue pills
- Chocolate-covered bacon [J.D.'s note: Darn-tootin', I'm trying this recipe!]
- Lottery tickets, which can be purchased online or through a recurring “subscription” (“Never miss a drawing! No waiting in line!”)
- Multiple digital cameras and video recorders
- Hats of meat
- TVs and DVD players in cars
- Smoothies, Frappuccinos, Bloomin’ Onions, Chia Pets (tastes sorta like parsley, or chicken)
- Child car seats and booster seats
- Prostitutes who bite your tongue (as hired by the guy who promotes the SlapChop and the ShamWow)!
- Books that explain what the heck was going on during Inception
- Gym memberships
- Children
- Chocolate-covered women
Not all these items are luxuries. Many enhance safety and productivity, and provide just the right combination of sweetness, crunchiness, and antennae-ness. Plus, since average household income has quintupled, we can afford more Stuff.
On the other hand, the list also demonstrates why some people might have trouble saving money. I often receive emails from readers who are in the second half of their working careers and yet have saved very little for retirement. A while back, I read a Washington Post article about a family that was struggling financially, including this description of their life: “The house is small, and the blare of Nickelodeon from the TV chokes the day.” Of course, Nickelodeon can only be accessed by paying for cable TV (a luxury we finally succumbed to last January).
My point, dear reader, is that there is a current and future cost to the modern lifestyle. For every dollar we earn, we could rightfully ask: “Do I want to spend a dollar today and work longer, or do I want to spend a few dollars in the future (assuming some compound gowth), when I no longer have to work?”
For some purchases, we’d undoubtedly still spend the money today. However, others may be providing less current satisfaction than what that money could provide in the future. Just something to think about. I know I’ll keep it in mind when my cell-phone service contract runs out this spring, and I evaluate whether the $1,251 I have to earn every year for it is worth the $102,609 I could have (assuming a 6% annual return and 3% inflation rate of the cost of cell service) 30 years from now.
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This article is about Choices, Consumerism, Planning
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How can I possibly take advice from someone who can’t even follow a movie plot? (Inception)
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““In 1957, the average American earned about $10,000 (adjusted for inflation) and lived without a dishwasher, clothes dryer, television, or air conditioner” — and more people reported being “very happy” than do now. All these conveniences involve monthly fees, up-front purchases, regular repairs, accessories — or all the above.”
That is true. But all of these costs also buy you more TIME.
-Having a TV for the kids to watch means you can have time to spend with your wife/husband while they are distracted and make car rides seem faster.
-Having a dishwasher means you don’t have to spend time washing dishes
-Having a cell phone means you don’t have to wait around your telephone for a call and can do other things instead. “Honey do I we need milk?” while driving to the supermarket, instead of forgetting and making two trips!
-GPS systems can save tons of time. Just think about all the times you got lost. You can use maps, but GPS is much more efficient.
Its true there are much more options but each offer a form of convenience and time-saving that any person a half-century ago sweating in their hot, non-airconditioned half-sized house, would of gladly opted for.
As for the happiness part, maybe its other social factors at work as well.
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@Maggie:
LOL! Your post reads like an iPhone brochure. “Think of all the money you’re wasting on ‘Sleep Sounds’ white noise machines! Well, no more! Buy an iPhone!” LOL!
Come on, you were just making some of that stuff up. “My phone has an alarm, so I don’t need to buy an alarm clock.” Are you serious? You didn’t already have an alarm clock? Your wristwatch doesn’t already have an alarm? Not exactly a big selling point for the iPhone for me.
You don’t have to pay for a landline? Sure, but you don’t need a $600 iPhone with a $100/month voice+data plan to replace a $25/month landline.
The camera point, you already contradicted yourself, noting that all cell phone cameras suck.
I already had a GPS for my car years before the iPhone was invented, and it works just fine. I don’t need GPS for my runs – the treadmill does a fine job of telling me how far I’ve run. Something tells me an iPhone would tell me I’ve gone 0 miles, at an average speed of 0 mph. Not very useful.
My iPod was $100, not $600. And it’s much smaller and lighter than a big, clunky iPhone pulling my shorts down while I’m trying to run.
“I downloaded a free ATM app so I can always find the nearest ATM for my bank and avoid fees.”
What’s an “ATM fee?” I haven’t paid an ATM fee in years. You don’t need an iPhone for that.
Being able to access work email on my phone is NOT a selling point. I don’t want work expecting me to return emails at all hours of the day and night – I want them to know I can’t access work email outside the office (and have no intention of changing that).
All that really matters is you think you’re getting value for your money. But don’t make up stuff like claiming you need an iPhone to tell you when to check the air in your car’s tires. That just sounds ridiculous.
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HAHA THIS IS TOO FUNNY!
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Once upon a time, cell phones were a luxury. If you desperately needed to make a call from a public place, you could use a pay phone. The people who keep telling us that even the most basic cell phone is a luxury either have a cell phone, or … I don’t know what. Because there are no pay phones anymore. How do you ever make an emergency call if you don’t have a cell phone?
What’s really interesting is those who criticize people who don’t have cars– and therefore use public transportation and/or shank’s mare– for owning cell phones, even if they are pay-by-the-minute ones.
Many of my friends have saved money by simply disconnecting their landline and changing entirely over to a cell phone. In many cases, basic cell phone service (maybe even with texting) can be cheaper than the cell phone plus long distance rates of the 80s and 90s. A few long distance calls could easily run your phone bill up over $73 a month in ’92.
Nowadays, we pay $43 a month for our land line (which is really an internet line) and $43 for our ‘high speed’ Internet service– for us not a luxury, since it’s a condition of my roommate’s job that he have computer access at home. But I know people who might have to pay $300 a month for phone, internet and cable together. Ouch!
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These kinds of articles really annoy me, enough that I actually comment. The author is making the typical argument that he’s making good buying choices while those buying the iPhone 4 are fools. Why such iPhone hate? Honestly I thought the same when J.D. announced he bought a Mini Cooper. I thought only a fool would buy that kind of car. But this is completely from my point of view, i.e. I have 4 kids and a wife to haul around. We have to remember that everyone has different needs.
If this was an intellectually honest example then what is the inflation adjusted price of the services replaced by the iPhone (most notably the landline)? Not to mention the 2 minutes of Google search I did on inflation adjusted 1957 incomes (like Coley did too). As others have pointed out, what about the time savings of the things we purchased. If a dishwasher costs 100 hours of my time to buy but saves me 1000 hours over its lifetime, isn’t that a good deal? (I made the numbers up, but this is the kind of analysis I was hoping to see).
And the throw away nonsense about cell phones causing brain cancer? Why perpetuate falsehoods like this and devalue your argument?
Why not just make a clean argument that we should carefully consider the purchases we make since the price is paid in hours of our time? Each person’s utility gained from a purchase is different and it seems more helpful to point out how to make better purchases than to call one a fool and offer no help.
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Robert
Thanks for the clarification.
Your article is very good. Definitely worth saving and re-reading it.
The list you have provided here could be useful for many as an ideal checklist for how not to waste your money by spending it on unnecessary junk.
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Amen and hallelujah! I too point this out all the time. Maybe I’ll just print out this post & carry it around in my purse to save myself the trouble of talking.
And as for the dishwasher, my grandma had a thought about that… “I have a dishwasher already. His name is Grandpa.”
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While it is a good idea to consider your purchases carefully, it is also difficult to be the “odd one” without these conveniences. Once you get used to a cell phone, it’s hard to give up. Same with cable TV. And many others. Not that you are wrong. But it can be hard for some people to be the ones without, and feel left out.
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(This is why my grandpa, a retired mechanic, is a millionaire at 90.)
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the list cracked me up.
We have also replaced the land line with cell phones. The land line was only marginally cheaper and it was WAAAAY less useful. We are considering smartphones, in part because we are rarely home and it would be nice to have the internet. Also someone stole our GPS.
I would LOVE an e-book reader! If nothing else, for the ability to carry a zillion books with me wherever I go! I read fast, and my library doesn’t carry many paperbacks; if I’m going on a longish trip, my bag will be seriously heavy. If I can get e-books from the LIBRARY… omg heaven.
I’ll have to save up for that though.
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It’s part of lifestyle inflation. Something that didn’t exist for thousands of years (and people lived very easily without) suddenly is a necessity – like cell phones, GPS and meat hats.
I went without my Blackberry for 48 hours last week and the reaction from coworkers and friends astounded me. You’d think I was purposely walking into a crackhouse with a gun pointed to my head. Some even recommended I go get a loaner “just in case”. I mean, really.
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My grandparents had 8 kids, so I’m not sure chocolate-covered women is a new invention.
I can’t believe how many things on that list we actually have or have tried (excluding Tiger Woods or Mel Gibson, hahaha). I think Hats of Meat, satellite radio, ebook readers, the people mentioned, chocolate-covered bugs, the Slap Chop, and little blue pills are the only things we seem to have missed…wow, I am a major consumer…
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I’m actually kind of surprised that the majority of these comments completely miss the point of the article, which is the present and future cost of conveniences. So many people are jumping in to defend their choice of gadget, like RB was pointing at them personally. I often feel that defensiveness is the default stance of people who feel they maybe aren’t making the wisest choices.
DH uses a Palm Pre to run his business. No problem. He tried to get me one too. I don’t need it and resisted mightily. Instead he got me a basic phone with a 100% rebate of the purchase price when added to the plan. It makes calls and sends texts, at an incremental cost of $15/mo. But we still have to have a landline in order to get other services from our residential provider. So that $15/mo cell phone is basically just another form of insurance, that we can get in touch when nobody’s at home.
Another example: We pay about $100 for DISH network and high-speed internet. Those are conveniences, not needs. They’ve meant our movie and theatre attendance has plummeted, but did we spend $1200/yr before on movies and shows? No, we certainly did not. We’re paying *extra* for that convenience, and we’ve also substituted TV for more distinctive and special experiences. Probably not a net advantage.
No matter how much you love your gadgets, and regardless of whether your 1950s equivalent would have loved them too, spending money on these things today does mean we can’t save that money for the future. And even the present value of our conveniences may not exceed the value of what they’ve replaced.
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I didn’t get the article. It didn’t have a clear thesis to me. I also didn’t find it funny. I found the analysis quite logically inconsistent – but then I don’t have an American sense of humor and I take everything literally.
I don’t understand why PF blogs focus on glorifying the olden days. It seems like this theme is getting constantly re-hashed. This article does not offer a unique value perspective on my time.
I also, just for fun, made a huge list of things that the American family bought as part of their consumption bundle in the 50′s that we no longer buy.
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I disagree that cell phones are part of lifestyle inflation. The very first ones were, yes. But now that is how people communicate. Before telephones and cars existed, society was different, our infrastructure was different. People lived closer together, and if you wanted to communicate with someone, you just walked or rode over and said hello. You can’t do that anymore. Do you think I’d be welcome if I just showed up at a friend’s house any old night just to say Hi? Maybe once, but that’s not how society is built now. Maybe all your friends live in the same cul-de-sac and so you can get all your socializing in person, but my friends and family are geographically scattered and we rely on texts and facebook to keep in touch. Its a different social infrastructure.
I have one friend who refused to get a cell because he said if anyone was *really* his friend, they would know where to find him at home or at work. Well that’s all well and good, but I live three hours from him so I can’t just stop by. We don’t see him very often, which is a shame.
If it were lifestyle inflation then the poor wouldn’t have them. But as you’ve pointed out they do because it is a need now and not a want. To the people who say it is not a need: are you saying you have no phone service at all? Because my cell is cheaper than any landline in my area.
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It’s a question of time and effort versus money. It takes me a lot longer and a lot more sweat to haul my laundry to the laundromat every week, but my apt. rent is a lot cheaper since there’s no laundry in my building. Neither is there a dishwasher, an elevator or central AC. So I save a lot of $ on rent, electricity, etc. In return, it takes me a lot longer to do things like wash dishes, do laundry and I “suffer” more by having to drag everything up 4 flights of stairs.
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I am apparently the other person in the readership who actually remembers 1957. Of course my parents were pretty happy back then. They both grew up during the depression. Both had lost a parent before they were ten years old. My dad’s father only worked intermittently.
My parents were indeed pretty happy then. My father had a steady paycheck and he was no longer in danger of somebody shooting him during the war. My mother could stay home and raise us. I didn’t even know anybody who had a working mother. Why wouldn’t they be pretty happy? Yeah, we had a TV but half the time it didn’t work anyway. I never even saw a color TV until 1967 much less know anyone buying one.
Just to give you a little context.
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Cell phones are an example of everyone else having one leading to there being less infrastructure for people who don’t – there’s not so many pay phones around, and the assumption seems to be that everyone has a phone.
We got cell phones after the car broke down on the interstate in Oklahoma, when my son was still an infant. Nobody stopped to see if we were OK, nobody stopped to let us use their phone, we pushed the stupid car to the next exit and…nobody at the gas station knew where there might be a mechanic who fixed Toyotas, or a mechanic at all, or a pay phone.
When nearly the exact same thing happened to my mom back in the mid-80s, someone stopped and gave us a ride to the next exit, where the gas station had a pay phone and the clerk had a stack of nearby-area phone books we could look at.
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I remember 1959. We didn’t have a dishwasher, TV, cell phone, or air conditioning, and I still don’t. I also have the same stove we had back then. This is one of the reasons I am one of the “millionaires next door.” I actually do live a pretty luxurious lifestyle, but I spend money on travel, not on household goods. It’s all about putting your money where it means the most to you, not just spending it automatically.
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The appeal of an e-reader for me is that I can borrow books from the library without worrying about fines because I can’t seem to get them back on time. I’ve got about 100 books on my e-reader, and most of them are free from Project Gutenberg. For me, it’s much cheaper in the long run than even the library, because, well, I’m forgetful! It takes the forgetful fees out of the equation.
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The point of the article is valid. We spend a lot on fancy gadgets. But I have to nitpick this bit: “In 1957, the average American earned about $10,000 (adjusted for inflation) and lived without a dishwasher, clothes dryer, television, or air conditioner”
The average American home certainly had a TV in 1957.
http://www.tvhistory.tv/facts-stats.htm
78% of American households had a television in 1957. And like Coley pointed out a TV cost a LOT more then as a % of your income.
Also note that in the 1950′s we spent ~27% of our household income on food. 10% on apparel. 3% on booze and tobacco. Those 4 categories accounted for 40% of household income. Today we spend about 18% of our income on those things.
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I’m really getting tired of statements like the following:
“whether the $1,251 I have to earn every year for it is worth the $102,609 I could have (assuming a 6% annual return and 3% inflation rate of the cost of cell service) 30 years from now.”
Statements like this are misleading to the point of ridiculousness. It sounds like you can turn $1,000 into $100,000 with nothing but a little bit of time.
How about wording it how it really is? You’re spending 30 years to turn approximately $37,000 into about $71,000 (since you’re investing pre-tax money, you’re going to have to pay taxes on your $102,000), all adjusted for inflation. You’re getting a return of about double, not nearly a 100x return on investment like the original statement implies.
Besides, the only reason that you can make 6% per year on your investments is because we depend on a constantly growing economy, so that your share of it (held in stocks) continually increases in value year after year. We do this by offering more and more goods and services for sale, and convincing people to buy them. If we stopped growing the economy, and just had everyone make due with what they have now, the rate of growth of the stock market would drop from six or eight percent a year to essentially zero. Your $1251 per year to invest would just be $1251 unless you could find some way to grow it, presumably by building something and selling it to someone (who obviously doesn’t actually need to buy it, by the logic of the article).
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Missy (70),
If you’re a millionaire, next-door or otherwise, then even at a modest 3% your investments are spinning off $30k per year. Surely you can afford a $250 dishwasher, a $300 small LCD TV w/ digital antenna, a $200 window A/C unit, and maybe $15 per month for a basic pre-paid cell phone.
Frugality and wealth are nice, and one certainly does not need any of these things, but nobody gets any awards for being a martyr either.
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Yeah, I’m de-teching a lot. I have a desktop computer with DSL internet service. It costs $17.99 per month. My (rotary!) landline phone is measured service and it costs no more than $5.00 per month. I don’t have cable (but I did have to buy one of those digital converter boxes for my old tv — $25 with the government coupon). I have a smartphone, but when the contract expires in November, I’m switching to a phone-only. I got rid of Netflix, and take out movies from the library if I want to watch one.
I find myself MUCH happier without all those gizmos. I’m unsubscribing from lots of email lists, and while I do while away time reading sites like this one on the INternet, I also hang out, read magazines, play with my pets, garden — trying to un-digitize my little life.
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Coley (74) – you’re missing the point. If she was happy without these things then, why not now?
All of those things also have continuing costs of maintenance, utilities, space, repair, and replacement. Not to mention the environmental and time costs.
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@Coley #74
But the whole point is that going without that stuff DOESN’T make you a martyr.
I lived without any of this stuff until 2004 and life was lovely.
The comments about cell phones now being a necessity b/c of lack of infrastructure are true though. It’s very difficult to find a working phone around here, and each call costs 50 cents. Barely 15 years ago a payphone call cost 10 cents (in Connecticut) and payphones were everywhere. Sigh. What do superheroes do now?
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@Erica #75
I guess you win. Do you want a cookie? You’re better than the rest of us “consumers” out here in the Western world.
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I love you Robert.
I look forward to your posts.
I love my iPhone 4 too though (not enough to wait in line though). But I recently moved 3,000 miles away from my family & friends so it makes it doable to keep in touch with family & friends through Facebook & multimedia messages. And it’s just fun.
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Yeah, I have a cell phone. An iPhone in fact (a 3GS, not a 4G). However, my cell phone IS my phone; I don’t have a landline. While having an iPhone or other smartphone is certainly an indulgence, simply having a cell phone isn’t. A cell phone instead of a landline means my friends can reach me even if I’m not at home. Having BOTH is an unneeded expense.
The house that I’m renting didn’t come with a drier, and wasn’t supposed to have a washer for that matter, but the previous tenant left hers. I bought a drying rack because I didn’t feel like schlepping a drier down the basement steps. If I had a drier I’d use it, but the drying rack works well enough.
I don’t have a television. I don’t have cable TV. I do have high-speed internet, which I can use to watch TV shows (though I rarely do).
I also don’t have a dishwasher (and wouldn’t want one—my kitchen is too small as it is) or air conditioning.
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I have both a landline and cell phone. My landline is my business phone so that’s a necessity for me. I thought about just having a cell phone, but it doesn’t seem practical to have my personal cell phone number on my website for customers to have access to. Plus, given that I work from home, I spend a tremendous amount of hours on the phone mostly for business related reasons. For that, and a few other reasons, its actually cheaper and more practical for me to have both for the time being.
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I wish I could see fewer posts (and comments) on this blog that seem to glorify the people who pat themselves on the back for living as close to their cavemen roots as possible.
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@77 (questioner) ROFL. That is an excellent question. And what about Dr. Who? How can he travel unnoticed post 2000?
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LOL, I have a cell phone, but it is turned off and in my purse so that it can be used IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. I have a landline at home that works just fine and is still working when the power fails and the battery on the cell phone dies.
I have noticed generally that these phones lead to them being glued to the persons hand so that all they do is interface with the phone and not real people.
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Here’s something that you can try to pay for the data plan, which is a real help, particularly when travelling. I initially wanted to get a refurbed iphone 3G when I signed up for a new ATT contract (using the premier discounts), that gives about 15% off depending on your company, but instead ordered an Iphone4.
Sold the iphone4 on Ebay for about $700+, (after fees, and my inital cost for the iphone) net about $380, that pays for about 18 months of the discounted $25 data plan. Use the new plan with my 3 yr old iphone 2G (bought nused, unlocked to Tmobile with no data plan), with no added guilt about splurging for an unneeded luxury. You’ve got to hand it to the early adopters, they really do subsidize these gizmos for the rest of us
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Great article- fun- interesting responses.
I think cell phones are seriously overrated- but every one of my 6th graders (in a poor neighborhood) carries one since mom works and that is the only “phone in the house”. If I need to call their parent- I use their cell phone! (I own a TRAC and it does not work at school.)
I grew up with a mother at home. These kids grow up with their mother in their pocket. Sometimes I wonder which of us communicate better?
As for a tv in 1957- not in my upper middle class house. The first one was in 1960.It was such a big day we are all in front of it for the picture in my scrapbook.
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I seriously laughed until I almost cried between the post and the linked Monty Python sketch.
To cheapcookies (45) I say: RIGHT ON. My husband and I both have prepaid T-Mobile phones that cost us roughly $200 per year. Total, for two phones. Smartphones depress me a little bit, as they usually just seem to interrupt real human interaction while people check their tweets or whatever.
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@NoViTP (#82)
And I wish I could see fewer comments complaining about frugality. This is a blog about personal finance. Frugality is an important part of personal finance. So is learning to control consumer wants.
This post is fine — funny and insightful. It’s not advocating that we live as cavemen. And it’s not patting anyone on the back. Few comments or posts are like that. Instead, it’s a call to spend consciously.
I know I shouldn’t respond when I feel provoked, but sometimes I can’t help it. I see so many complaints about how frugality posts aren’t helpful or entrepreneurship posts aren’t helpful or investing posts aren’t helpful. Come on, people! No blog can be all things to all people at all times.
Take what you want and leave the rest behind. If you don’t like the frugality stuff, then ignore it.
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For the average person I think it’s insane that they spend $70/mo+ on a cell phone.
Seriously…it’s a phone…it calls people…and yeah has apps that are very handy (maps + geolocation + local search, for example).
But for $70/mo? I dunno. I’m pretty happy with my $19.50/mo plan that gives me all the talk time I need.
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Instead, it’s a call to spend consciously.
To me, too, that what it’s all about.
ETA: I actually thought this post was hysterical, because it put things like child car seats and the ShamWow at the same level. LOL.
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This post hit home with me. I’ve found that the family members of mine who tend to complain the most about the “haves” versus the “have nots” are those that are the first in line for the new Mac products, iPhones, etc. To me, they “have” all the great technological toys at the expense of having any real savings.
I gotta try that chocolate covered bacon recipe… and with any luck, the chocolate covered women one too.
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Sounds like a lot of IPhone users are trying to justify their need to have something they really don’t need. My phone is three years old. I can do an upgrade, but I refuse to pay more. I use it to make and receive phone calls. I am way too busy to play with my phone. People who have these kinds of phones tend to disengage from what is going on around them. Sit in any meeting where people are supposed to be paying attention, and you will see at least half the people fiddling around with their phones, and some of them actually answering phone calls. (There, I got that off my chest!) That being said, I’m so tired of trying to keep up with every new electronic device that comes out. Many of these new things have improved the quality of our lives, but you’d be hard pressed to convince me that cell phones have done that.
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I think this post is a good reminder to be conscious of your buying choices, and watch out for lifestyle inflation. i’m in my 20s and almost all my friends have “smart phones” but i don’t care. i’ve been with the same service provider for over 5 years now, and every 2 years or so, i’m eligible for a free phone, and that’s when i get one. It doesn’t have any fancy apps, and sometimes my friends tease me, but it does the job for me.
Just wanted to mention that, because I noticed some comments saying how they feel peer pressure to keep up. Come on people, we’re not in high school anymore. Say no to the peer pressure.
BTW I don’t live like a caveman. I do get netflix, and other stuff I care to get.
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I NEED my smartphone since I trade forex.
As for cable, I only have the lowest basic tier, since I have to have it in order to get internet (Comcast), but I hardly watch tv. I miss watching Discover channel and TLC, though. I just don’t really like watching “tv” on my computer screen, since it’s not in my living room.
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#92- if you don’t like trying to keep up with the latest device- don’t. Nobody says you have to. Your ‘sounds like..’ is your own bias speaking, not necessarily the truth.
I personally get annoyed at the holier-than-thous who assume because someone owns an iPhone or BlackBerry or smartphone, that they’re automatically either a trendoid or wasteful, money-wise. Perhaps people out there with desk jobs or who are retired or work from home don’t need one, but for me its been a godsend! I travel constantly for my work and would rather not lug around a laptop-yet I constantly have to check for last-minute work that comes to me via email (cause if I don’t I lose the work). My iPhone paid for itself within a week that way. It has saved my backside from getting hopelessly lost with the GPS; I can keep in touch with my husband who also has a constant travel, non-desk job by texting (because driving while talking on a cell is illegal here). I can do banking day or night, I can manage my budget while on the train. I use it as an alarm clock as well since my alarm clock died. Its incredibly, incredibly useful to me. I used to have a regular cell but it just couldn’t do what I needed it to. ( I don’t need or have a landline. I’ve only got cable because my mother-in-law who lives with us wants it. These things don’t matter to me.) Please stop painting everyone with the same brush. You have no idea what other people’s lives are or why they buy/use the devices they do.
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I love the numbers about how much you had to earn to pay this $876 bill. Should be even further motivation to stay away from such expensive toys!
And for #95–if you’re making money with your Iphone–then more power to you!!
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It all depends what you think is worth it. I don’t think that modern life has to be expensive or busy, we can choose the conveniences that we want or don’t want. We all choose what we want to do with our money, time and life.
My bf and I both grew up in nice middle class families with cable, we’re 27 and 30 years old, and we don’t have cable, no tivo, and its so freeing!
In the 21st century we are advertised to death, its ridiculous. When I was a teen I was glued to my tv, because there was always another tv show to watch, its nice to not have that anymore. It also helps to not have the constant commercials.
We do have internet access and computers, so we do pick and choose what we will give our time,attention, and money to. We both find the internet much more useful than cable.
But yes I agree with the end of the article that there is a cost to what we spend our money on. I hate the word frugal but even I have to admit, you have to be economic or you won’t end up with money towards the end of your life when you are old and really need it.
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Also, the word you want is not “apertures”, but, I think, “appurtenances”.
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This article definitely make you think but it’s a “it was always better in the past without our modern lifestyle” rant I’ve been seeing lately.
Technology is evil. Modern conveniences are evil! We spend too much! The past was the greatest.
Well, sorry to put it to you, the past wasn’t that great esp. in the 50′s.
The 50′s:
You can get drafted.
If you’re weren’t White and privileged then you were blatantly discriminated against.
Cigarettes were “good for you”.
Medical tech was horrible considered to today.
QoL at the end of life was worse (why do you think there was Soc. Security on 56 years of age? Not many people were expected to live that long).
Life expectancy was worse. Polio. Smallpox. Malaria. Whooping Cough, etc.
Food was more expensive.
FDA was in it’s infancy. Quality could be poor.
If you didn’t conform with being WASP you were ostracized and it was a lot less permissive then today.
The Cold War – Nuclear scare-tactics. McCarthyism.
You couldn’t contact your family easily if you were far away.
Friends either.
You’re entertainment options were extremely limited to the “mass market”.
You couldn’t get “info at your fingertips” for anything. Every news item was days old on dead trees unless you had that “new fangled television” or radio.
Travel options were extremely limited and expensive. The “jet set” means that you had to be almost rich, save forever for a ticket (or in the military) to be able to fly.
etc, etc..
You have to take the bad with the good. You could somewhat circumvent all of these “evil modern distractions”. I would much rather have the medical breakthroughs, QoL, life expectancy with some distractions then the potential strife, disconnection and discrimination (if you weren’t White) from the past .
I wouldn’t want to go back in time even if you put a gun to my head.
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With the advent of iPhone and Android, my carrier decided to change my data plan from $8 a month to about $27. Why? Because I had an unusual phone (Motorola A1200) and they decided it was a “smart phone” and required the higher data plan. I canceled my data plan until I decided upon a true smart phone.
I use to check and send e-mail, read the news and technical articles, and do search based research on my phone. I can’t do any of that anymore, but a strange thing happened. The world didn’t end. No one complained that they could not reach me or that I didn’t respond fast enough. I now have a lot more time – I no longer fill up my free time with my eyes and fingers glued to my phone.
I still want a smart phone (yes, I’m a geek) but I’m no longer in a hurry to get one. Every day I can use my now “dumb” phone I save money and – amazingly – have more time.
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