BUDGETS FOR SCREENS
Trade in Your Phone or Keep Until It’s Unusable?
Your money or your digital life
I imagine you’d agree that keeping phones or any piece of computing gear until it doesn’t work and cannot be repaired will cost you less than any trade-in schedule. You’d also be doing less environmental damage. Wow, saving money and helping our planet — sounds great!
Is there a saying about no good deed going unpunished?
In this case, you may be missing out on new features that could make you safer, let you do your work easier, or make your life more enjoyable. Isn’t that a good use for your money?
How about security? At some point, the device maker will stop issuing security patches for your device. In some cases, usually with the cheapest devices, they may never give you any at all beyond your original purchase! That could cost you money and inconvenience.
A penny never spent is the same as a penny never had.
Trading in or up
I used to buy new devices frequently. I often didn’t even trade in — I’d just give the old device to a family member, friend, and sometimes complete strangers. Now that I’m retired, the money for that is not available, so I have been thinking about how long to keep…
