The tech-mania is amazing to watch.  I’m a reformed early adopting tech-junkie who loved the latest gadgets when they first came out. Heck, my first computer was a disk swapping Macintosh I picked up new-in-the-box in 1987. That little machine changed my life- mostly for the better. I subsequently bought a Powerbook laptop and a host of other Apple accessories until about 1998 when I couldn’t stand spending the money any more. I went to the PC and have never looked back in terms of cost and interoperability. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Mac and may still get another when the time comes. But my Windows machines have done a fine job for me over time at a lower cost. Now, what I should have done back in the ’80’s is buy some Apple stock. Every couple of years I would say that… I should have bought…. I should have bought… and here it is 2007 and I still haven’t owned a share in all that time. Of course I never bought Wal-Mart in the early 1980’s when a friend recommended it to me. Or the time I spent on a treadmill with another friend in the early 1990’s who really liked Starbucks and Microsoft. But I did own Cisco for a while! Around 1994 I bought several hundred shares… I knew they would be a great company… but those shares went away after liquidating some funds for family reasons. I once looked at what they’d be worth now… that was not a good thing to do. I look back and see that many opportunities presented themselves. And many other things that I “consumed” along the way. Somewhere in the last 7 years I got serious about my future and buckled down, and have made decent progress toward my retirement goals. We all learn lessons- now I’m just trying to learn them a little faster, with less pain in terms of opportuntiy cost!
So where am I going with this? I WANT AN IPHONE! Okay, not really. Well, yes really but I’m not going to get one. I tried explaining all the cool things it does to my wife. A raised eyebrow and a quizzical look told me she didn’t get it. Or maybe she did, but thought half a mortgage payment was a little much for a neat little gadget that we don’t really need. “What’s wrong with the phone you have?” “Ummm… well… nothing I guess… but… “ Realistically, I’m a little more patient these days, or maybe a little more realistic? I know at some level that the prices will come down, the bugs worked out and other products will come along that I’ll like just as much. So I’ll wait to see how it all works out. Our phone plan is now up however, and we are month-to-month with our current carrier. I’m anxious to find a lower cost alternative… alas, it won’t be with the iPhone. The plans sound great, but forking over $500+ for the gadget is too rich for me. Hmmm… maybe Santa will be good to me this year…
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