“Sixty-three percent of adults said they would cover a hypothetical $400 emergency expense exclusively using cash or its equivalent, unchanged from 2022 and 2023 but down from a high of 68 percent in 2021.”

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-we...

$999 is a lot of money.

Hardly anyone in the US pays full price for the iPhone up front. They either use 0% carrier financing - usually with offsetting credits - or through Apple.

I don’t understand what that survey question is supposed to be indicating. I have lots of disposable income, and by default I spend using a credit card.

US net worth at the 25th percentile is >$20k, it’s not the case that 32% of people literally don’t have the wealth to afford a $400 expense.

net worth isn't cash flow. the point of that question is that many Americans actually can't just pay off an unexpected $400 charge.

Do you have the question wording? I suspect it’s not measuring what this discussion assumes.

From https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2024-suppl... :

  Suppose that you have an emergency expense that costs $400. Based on your current financial situation, how would you pay for this expense?
  If you would use more than one method to cover this expense, please select all that apply.
  a. Put it on my credit card and pay it off in full at the next statement
  b. Put it on my credit card and pay it off over time
  c. With the money currently in my checking/savings account or with cash
  d. Using money from a bank loan or line of credit
  e. By borrowing from a friend or family member
  f. Using a payday loan, deposit advance, or overdraft
  g. By selling something
  h. I wouldn’t be able to pay for the expense right now

A and c count as "cash or cash equivalents".

Median American has $8k in a checking acct.

Median American household not person, but yes.

Net worth is a bad comparison. It’s easy for people to have $20k in assets but very little cash on hand.

> $999 is a lot of money.

Which almost no one pays up front or at all in the US with the carrier deals and trade ins.

There sure are a lot of comments in this thread pulling out all sorts of random and arbitrary statistics that have no connection with what is actually being discussed here. I’m finding that very strange, frankly.

You must be new here.

Standard HN bikeshedding.

Installments?

Not when you will buy the phone on credit which many people interpret as getting it for free.

Or those god-forsaken monthly payment plans that exclusively exist to get people who don't know how to budget racking up more debt

0% financing on Apple card, 3-8% annual inflation the last 4 years, you'd be dumb not to take it

The people monthly payment plans target are not able to afford the thing because they bought 30 other things on monthly payment plans in the past year and can't keep track of all the monthly payments they're owing until it's too late. That's the intent and why they're so popular now. It's why DoorDash is getting in on the action, so people will buy a Taco Bell delivery with a tempting price tag of only $4 at the time of purchase, multiple times a week for months until you owe hundreds of dollars.

Regardless of who they target, I'm taking free financing any day of the week. It's like credit cards which I've received huge value from, and I've never carried a balance in over 30 years of use.

They are offering 0% when treasuries are yielding 4%, of course I’m going to take it.

Like many other things, these services work well _if you already have the money and don’t actually need it_

A payment plan for a phone makes perfect sense if the phone is capital equipment that makes you money.

> They are so commonplace and also not really that expensive where it is a financial flex like some watch that cost 10k+ or something.

I definitely agree about them being just about the most banal stupid toy you could spend the money on, but it's still a lot of money to a lot of people despite the cost of basic necessities making it not the huge amount that it used to be. I cringe at paying over $450, considering that every new model of phone since like 2015 hasn't really done anything worth significantly more money.

It's just a proxy for people to complain about the price. People will complain about a few hundred dollars in a phone price differences, even though it will be the one product they use more than anything else they own. And then not blink spending a couple extra grand on some car features/performance they use rarely or spend a thousand dollars a year on lattes.

I smile every time I get to drive my car. Hate the phone every other time I pick it up.

I used to find driving quite pleasant, except when everyone else was doing it.

I like my car and my phone. I guess I am particular about what I buy, and I don't buy what I don't need or wont like.

I think it's -mostly- an age thing, and you simply matured out of it. For the most part.

I say that because I feel similarly, but my out of college coworkers rib me for not having an iPhone. One even commented he'd probably never text me in real life, to which I of course replied that I'd never want him to text me in real life.

Further, in the US, non-iPhone have terrible resale value, so the monthly cost of iPhone can be cheaper

Part of the resale value is the better long-term support Apple provides.

You're in the US.