HALF A MILLIONAIRE

About a month ago, I turned my house upside down and still could not locate my cell phone. I used my wife’s to call myself in hope that I would hear it ring, but I got the voicemail box, instead. Finally, I found it in my car, out of battery. I had not touched it for more than three weeks. It revealed to me that if I had been able to live without it for almost a month, then, perhaps, I did not really need it. I communicated my discovery to my wife, and she concurred. She suggested that we should switch to a prepay plan to save some money. I researched on the prepay concept. And, together, my wife and I, happily, entered the stone age. 

When I told my friends–lovers of Apple iphone, Palm Pre and BlackBerry–that I had changed my phone plan to prepay, they replied with silence. Then, they all laughed when one said, “you did the right thing because no one was calling you anyway.” They were right. I looked around the cafetaria, and everyone seemed to have a toy in one hand and a fork in the other. Some were checking their stock portfolio. Some were opening emails. Some were reading the news. I felt so insignificant. I felt as though I was the only person who had nothing to worry about. I was just glad that my name was not Fred Flintstone. Did I oversimplify my life?

Prepay Options:

1) Unlimited Calling Plan: This plan charges three dollars (”Daily Access Fee”) when one uses one’s phone. For the entire day, after paying the $3 fee, all domestic calls (including U.S. territories) are free. We do not choose this plan because we are not phone-talkers.

2) Mobile to Mobile Plan: The Daily Access Fee (DAF) is one dollar when one first uses one’s phone. For the entire day, one can make “unlimited” mobile to mobile calls. For example, if we pick this plan, my wife and I can talk to each other on the phone the entire day for free after we have paid the $1 DAF because we both use the same phone company (mobile to mobile). If I call my brother and he uses another phone company (not mobile to mobile), then I will be charged 10 cents per minute (a flat rate). We do not choose this plan because we do not use our phones that much.

3) Simple Rate Plan: This plan does not charge the Daily Access Fee. One pays a flat rate of 25 cents per minute when one uses one’s phone. We pick this plan because it is simple. However, the bad thing about this plan is that if I call my wife on her cell phone, each of us will be charged 25 cents per minute separately. So, instead of talking to each other on our cell phones, our strategy is to use our landline phone as much as we can. Why do we still have a landline phone? We have been using it mostly for international calls.

How much do we save? Each of us fills up our own account with one hundred dollars (good for a year). Let us say that if eleven months have passed and each of us has only spent $80, do we lose $20? The answer is “no”. However, if we want to keep the $20 leftover, we must continue to add more money. Each of us can add $100 more to our respective account, and the total amount will become $120, which will be good for another year. One does not have to add $100 for the whole year. Alternatively, one can choose to add $15 per month, or $75 for nine months, and the key thing to remember is that one must continue adding money to keep the leftover money from the previous period alive. The phone company’s strategy is to force the participants to use up their money as quickly as possible. However, we believe that we can still gain from playing this game because our goal is to only spend a total of $200 in one year. And, if we adhere to our game plan, we can save about $760 per year because our current phone bill is about $80 per month. How much is $760? Annually, we pay approximately the same amount for our electricity. We can use it to invest or pay down debt.

Honestly, I did not want to switch to prepay because I thought that the saving would be minimal. However, my wife was right when she said, “saving is saving no matter how small”. I realized that it is not just about how much one can save, but it is more about building a mentality that focuses on saving. I have a plan to become wealthy, and I must execute it. I have to take small steps in the beginning. And, I believe that the ending of this journey will be much easier. I have so much fun playing this game because I am aware of the fact that I can “never” lose.