Help me get a mac book!

[McSedgley]

Have you thought about asking to 'borrow' the money? You can pay them back then. Depends how muh you want it.

[CJ MAC OSX IPOD]

Originally Posted by McSedgley

Have you thought about asking to 'borrow' the money? You can pay them back then. Depends how muh you want it.

Nice Idea!

[CJ MAC OSX IPOD]

Originally Posted by fryke

If you start paying off things at 13, how much will you be down when you are 21? A few thousand or a few hundredthousand bucks?

HUH?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

He means to say that if you start going into debt now just because you want something really bad, then how many times will that happen by the time you're 21 years old, and how much in debt will you be then?

Going into debt to get something you need is one thing... going into debt everytime you simply want something will ruin your financial standing pretty damn quick.

[fryke]

Exactly. It's something _I've_ had to learn the hard way, personally. You see: Once you _have_ something and are paying it back, there'll quite surely be something _else_ you want at least as much as the original wish you had. Soon as that MacBook is yours, there's bound to be the next version just around the corner. We _all_ know Apple makes great machines. And will continue to do so. If you're still paying off machine version 2006/06 (this month's) when version 2007/01 comes out, you're bound to feel a _little_ like selling your old and getting the new. Problem is: You haven't paid the first one yet. You're going to _crave_ the new version. Maybe you'll stay away from doing it, but then 2007/06 comes out. You'll *want* it and feel good about having stayed off 2007/01. So you'll sell 2006/06 (for not _that_ much money, of course) and get 2007/07 and another loan. Now you'll be down more money than the first time, because you hadn't paid back the first loan fully and lost some (you always lose some, coz' the hardware loses value over time) money, and as soon as you have the new machine, it's old again.

Again: Learn to live with what you currently have. You _can_. Work towards, say, 1300 USD. You know that _today_ you could get a nice MacBook with that kinda money. Ignore what's out there: Concentrate on getting your 1300 USD. When you _have_ the money, look at the market again. Maybe a new version will just have come out by that time. Then it's a good time to buy. Maybe you'll see on macosx.com and other sites, that new versions are soon expected. Then you wait a little longer and get it, when it arrives. You might be surprised to find that you suddenly have _1500 USD_ and can actually afford the higher end model with lotsa RAM! But the important thing _IS_ to buy when you can afford.

[Esquilinho]

That's why I only buy stuff I can afford to pay immediatly. The only thing I ever bought on credit was my flat – but that was inevitable

It's always best to save and then when you have the total amount necessary, you can buy it. It can be hard to wait, but just think on how much you'll save by not having to pay any interest!

[CaptainQuark]

As a Dad to a (former) 13-year-old I always made my son a deal when he asked for something: if you save/raise half the cash for whatever it is you want, I'll pay the other half.

He moaned like hell about it, but it helped him realise that, while he wanted something, he didn't actually need it.

Then one day, he surprised me! He came in to me and said that he wanted a PC!. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather! A PC!? When you could get a Mac? Get yer priorities right, Mush! But he gave me a carefully considered case for why he wanted it: gaming, but with the added bonus of being able to do schoolwork and teach himself web design, etc.

Well, to cut a long story short, he presented his argument well –*not just "I gotta have a PC and I gotta have it now!" – and he took me up on my offer! He went through all of his stuff and sold whatever he could, asked to do jobs around the house and garden, went out washing cars – and more.

I could see he was serious and that he was making a real effort to get what he wanted. It was different from everything else that he wanted, just 'cos his mates had one and he wanted to 'fit in', or that he had to have because it was the latest trendy gadget. I could have spent THOUSANDS if I'd pandered to his every whim.

But as he really made an effort and raised his bank balance from about £20 to £150, I could see that he was serious.

So I asked him for his £150, topped it up to the required amount and hey presto! he had his PC.

So show your folks that you are serious. Put a sensible reason to them why you need the MacBook. Sell your other Macs to raise some more money. SHOW them that this is important enough to you that you are prepared to put yourself out to get it!

I'm sure that they will help you out once they realise that you really mean it.

(Oh, and by the way, he's 20 now, lives in Sweden and STILL has that old PC!)