| Jun172008 | Paying the Piper |
Lately, I’ve been thinking hard about how I could magically afford an iPhone. Personally, I hate hate hate ongoing fees and I would rather put up with the upfront costs so I’m going to show the total cost over the mandatory 24-month contract.
| Item | Cost |
| 16 GB iPhone 3G | 299 |
| AT&T Plan (over 2 years) | 936 |
| Data | 720 |
| SMS | 120 |
| T-Mobile Early Cancellation | 200 |
| Total | $2275 |
You see that $720 for 24 months of data? That’s scary. It’s a compulsory part of the bundle but the benefit is that it is hellishly fast compared to the excuse of a mobile internet connection I have now. I could probably add another $300 for the iPhone they will no doubt release in 2009 to make the existing model obsolete. Heck, I could add $100 in there just for accessories alone (car charger, dock, new earphones, matching earrings, etc.).
Here’s how I’m going to crunch the numbers: I’m going to compare it vs. my existing T-Mobile plan with awful non-EDGE internet and less minutes. I’m going to assume I’d spend $300 on a new phone anyway because I hate the free ones they give out. I’m going to be extra generous and assume I would have eventually caved in and purchased a $300 GPS navigation for my car and the iPhone would replace that.
| Item | Cost |
| iPhone cost | $2275 |
| T-Mobile Plan (over 2 years) | -820 |
| New Phone | -300 |
| GPS Nav | -300 |
| Difference | $655 |
| Difference per month | $36 |
So it would cost an extra $655 over the next 24 months, give or take. That’s quite a bit of change there. It could fund a nice vacation, a few romantic evenings, two tanks of gas, a nice TV or a big ol’ box of sex toys. But let’s not kid myself. I don’t have much willpower. For now, let’s assume it is inevitable I buy one.
To that end, I will set myself some goals:
- Don’t buy any expensive electronics between now and iPhone
- Be debt-free before buying
- Find a way to weasel out of T-Mobile’s early cancellation fee
I think by the time I do pay off my car, I’ll probably somewhere in early 2009 which means my current contract will be about to expire anyhoo. Sigh. Between now and then, I have my trip to Korea later this month as well as whatever other travel will occur in that time.
Ok, so if I frame the iPhone in terms of my other financial commitments, it looks like I can’t afford it. If I just look at the monthly costs and my credit card limit, I can afford it. I could buy it on launch day and I wouldn’t have cornered myself into living paycheck-to-paycheck but at this point for me, I could swing either way. I think the thing for me to do now is sit on this for a month. Let’s re-examine this on July 17th.
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