Whenever I see a press release, demo or review for a new fun technology my heart starts racing. Something ignites within me and in that moment I believe I need that new shiny toy. My brain tries to provide seemingly good reasons why I ‘need’ it.
I still haven’t mastered this feeling – not at all. I actually made the large mistake of buying the new iPhone 6 a few months ago after playing with a few of them and comparing my iPhone 5 which could barely keep a charge for a few hours with what I originally thought was a ridiculously large phone. This impulsive decision created a ripple of financial consequences that finally shook me out of this cycle.
First, I bought the $100 Apple Care on top of the $200 I paid for the phone. I did this because I went through about 4 iPhone 5’s because of carelessness born from unhappiness (a tale for another time). To get the iPhone at this ‘low’ price I submitted myself to another 2 year contract with AT&T and in addition to the ‘upgrade fee’ of $40 that they did alert me to this upgrade caused my monthly bill to almost double to a disgusting $75. Even after selling my iPhone 5 for $300 after unlocking it and my accessories for another $15 I made a bad decision.
This is when I got serious about researching Republic Wireless, the phone company that my partner has been a member of for almost a year and Mr. Money Mustache recommends. Republic only offers a few phones with their monthly plans and all are Androids, but after the recent Android Lollipop upgrade I’m rid of one of my original concerns about Android: that the interface was ugly and made me not want to use it. My other concern is the camera most Android phones offered, such as the Moto X 2nd Gen. Despite having double the pixels of the iPhone 6 it takes worse pictures overall according to reviews – specifically in low light. My iPhone has replaced my regular camera as my camera of choice and I take a huge amount of pictures in my daily life (all landscapes, few people), which is a cause for concern.
But I am still moving to Republic Wireless at my earliest opportunity. It’s time to try and step away from this obsession of mine. I’m budgeting to buy the second best phone Republic offers, which is currently the original Moto X. I’m hoping I can truly tame my habit so when the time comes to purchase this phone I will not choose the latest model for no reason (or any fake justification). Financially, my monthly bill will be reduced from $75 (currently with my company reimbursing $60 of it) to $30 a month (with a questionable company reimbursement) for the same exact service with added customer support. I’m hoping to buy the second best phone offered for $300 and let that be that. According to their website Republic lets its customers change their wireless plan up to 2 times a month so if I’m somewhere with only WiFi that is all I pay for.
I’m trying to incorporate this thinking into the other gadgets of my life, especially my laptop. These past few years I’ve replaced my computer every 2-4 years and sold the older model. That is one of the reasons I love Apple products – they have great resale value which usually offsets the new purchase in a large way. However, simply buying a new device when nothing serious is wrong with it besides slowing down with age completely goes against my new financial and consumer goals. So despite my computer’s battery slowly failing I’m saving up to replace the battery this summer ($129) instead of buying a completely new machine ($1200) and selling this one ($300). I’m headed in the right direction!