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For most people the amortized cost of a phone over its life is pretty small. If you spend $1000 on a phone and it lasts you 3 years, that's ~$28 a month. A lo
by trilobyte 2y ago
For most people the amortized cost of a phone over its life is pretty small. If you spend $1000 on a phone and it lasts you 3 years, that's ~$28 a month. A lot of people spend that on coffee each month. The value they get out of their smart phone dwarfs most other big expenses.
- skapadia 2y agoRationalizing a purchase because the monthly payments are small is a terrible way to approach shopping. If you don't have the money to pay for it upfront, you can't afford it. Full stop. People actually finance their phones, believe it or not. It boggles the mind.
- notaustinpowers 2y agoPeople making an average hourly don't think of things that way. Paying $28/month for a phone provides much more liquidity for the unexpected, when the other option is spending over 25% of your months income, you're SOL if your car breaks for whatever reason, or you get a flat tire, or your water bill was unusually high.
- rd 2y agoSomething something cheap boot vs. expensive boot something something…
- advisedwang 2y agoThey're not saying finance a phone. They're saying $1000 is not that much for a device you use throughout every waking hour for several years. The monthly framing helps understand cost as a rate, as we experience value as a rate.
- drawfloat 2y agoOP wasn’t talking about a loan payment.
- FireBeyond 2y agoI assume, then, of course, that you bought (or would buy) your house in cash only? After all, "If you don't have the money to pay for it upfront, you can't afford it. Full stop."
- epolanski 2y agoThe value they get is identical they would get if they spent half of it. Unless, idk, you're so deep into the Apple ecosystem, e.g. that it makes sense to stay in the gardened wall and lower any kind of friction.
- cdrini 2y agoTech is a really weird field; I think because of the high salaries, a lot of people are rich without realising they're rich. Tech is the "Nouveau rich". $28 a month on coffee is rather large amount to spend on coffee.
- asadotzler 2y agoNo, $28 not a large amount to spend on coffee. That's a McDonald's medium coffee 3.5 days a week. How is that a lot to spend on coffee? That's just silly. A lot to spend on coffee is $150/mo with a $5 latte at Starbucks each day and that's certainly more common than the house painter getting a McDonald's coffee on half his workdays.
- cdrini 2y agoOk, "decent amount": Buying a coffee at McDonald's 3.5 days a week is a decent amount to spend on coffee. $150 is absurd. The "house painter" is making their own coffee before work.