Joe's Journal | Financial Independence | Do I buy the new phone?

Working from home over the past 7 months, I’ve realized I have quite the aversion to spending money. Sometimes I think I want to spend money on something - I recently dropped my phone so that means phone shopping is in the near future - but once I start the process of finding a new phone I very quickly question if this is really worth it!

TL;DR:

Don’t drop your phone, ever!
Buying stuff has become difficult, and there are days I feel like it isn’t worth saving.
Cell phones are expensive ~ $2.41 per day.
Financial Independence is a difficult path, but it’s worth it
Remember, don’t drop your phone!

I have to go search which phone is the “best bang for the buck phone” on the market. Go read all the wonderful marketing pages and content about the phone, and more importantly, go read all the haters that think this phone isn’t worth a dollar. Because we all know that’s where the juicy stuff is at!

So I landed on a phone - the recently released Pixel 4a. This phone is listed around $500, which is something I think most people don’t even question - some phones are going for nearly $1,000 which makes the phone I’d like a steal by that standard.

On the surface I think it's fine, it’s a phone. Phones nowadays are used every single day, multiple times a day. Generally the phone comes with the latest and greatest cameras, a really vibrant display, and some groundbreaking feature that is sure to take the cellphone market to the next level. When in reality it’s probably something novel and will quickly be nothing all that remembered.

But seriously, a phone is well worth its dollar, generally. According to CNBC, Americans keep their phones for 27 months before trading in their device for an upgrade. This comes out to 810 days (27 months * 30 days = 810 days), so as long as the price of that phone is $810 or less, I can almost justify the purchase. Almost.

Entertain my rabbit hole for just a minute. Let’s say my phone costs $500, plus $100 in taxes/shipping/misc for a total of $600. Now my wife and I have a discount on our cell service, which comes out to $70 per month. So, my daily costs for owning and using a phone looks like this:

Cell phone service per day: $35/month / 30 days = $1.67 per day
Cell phone use per day: $600 / 810 days = $0.74 per day
Total daily cost: $2.41

Assuming I own my phone for the average length of time of 27 months (810 days) then my total cost in that period is:

Total cost: 810 days * $2.41/day = $1,952.10

...and here is my dilemma. That’s an expensive device to scroll through apps, watch some funny videos of people tripping, read about how America has turned to a circus and the world is our spectator, and then go back to watching YouTube...

There is no way I am making anywhere close to that amount of money to justify such a large purchase! However, I think this is where I have to point out the obvious, my biggest quarrel isn’t necessary with the phone cost, but more with the cost for cell service each month. We have a fairly good deal for $70 per month for two, but even that is still quite a bit on a per day basis.

In my thought process as I question how much I really value this potential new phone, I realize that I’ve had my current phone for almost 3 years now (a wonderful 35 months) which gave me a blast of optimism that would justify this grand purchase.

…Making progress here, I’m really trying to justify this new phone!

Then I remembered that I bought the iPhone X, on the release date. You know, the first phone that came with a big sticker price of $1,000. With that realization, it made me deflated once more. I’m still paying more than $1.00 per day for my phone!

$1,150 total cost / 1,050 days = $1.10

...damn. Looking over at my beat up phone, it looks like we may have more time together than I had thought.

But to my original point on having an aversion to spending money, I wonder if anyone else goes through this? This aversion to spending is becoming quite the pain to deal with, because it feels almost like it limits our capacity of happiness in some unknown way. I mean, this new phone looks pretty cool!

I think the one thing that really helps me get through these moments is realizing that it’s temporary as we continue down our path towards financial independence. That's the goal, get to our number. Once we are there, then we can relinquish some of these restrictions we place on ourselves.

The goal isn’t to live like the average American, saving only 6% of our income in hopes of retiring someday. The goal is to live life with less concern on finances. In the pursuit for that life, we will have to spend a small period of our life being concerned about financial decisions like this. Cut expenses, save money, invest it, and keep repeating.

That’s been the cycle for the past 7 months.

Whether or not I’ll actually buy the phone this month is still undecided. I like it, it looks cool. The photos from it seem great, the reviews seem to be solid, it’s just the act of buying it. What do you think? Do you have any bad feelings when it comes to actually paying for something?