15 Things I'd Rather Do with $600 Than Purchase an IPhone

Let me start out by saying that the new Apple iPhone appears to be phenomenal product. I've read many rave reviews and I have heard personal accounts of its brilliance and I do not doubt it. Everyone knows that the Apple brand means innovation, quality and the hippest of the hip accessories. I do understand why people are scrambling to get one. I do understand why it is in contention to beat the Smartphone, the Blackberry, the Treo and a number of other devices out there as the current best thing. Really, its lovely. This is not an editorial to argue otherwise. I'm writing this for one simple reason. The best selling model of the iPhone retails for $600.

Regardless of how great it is, I already have a cellphone that works well and a great plan to accompany it. I already have a computer. I have an Mp3 player. I have an organizer and a camera and all manners of functional devices and ways of organizing my life and they are all working, more or less, just fine. I know that I could replace several of those with one really neat little streamlined device, but at this point, that would be wasteful and I don't happen to have an extra $600 (plus the cost of activation fees).

So this got me to thinking. I'm doing fine without one, but if I had an extra $600 right now, would I be tempted to pick one up?

Would it change my life radically for the better? Would it be something that I look back on and say "Wow. I'm so glad I spent that $600 on this little iPhone instead of all the other things I could do with $600?" Odds are, no it wouldn't. Why? Besides the fact that I'm a forgetful klutz and I'm terrified that I would lose it or trip and have it crash to the pavement - it wouldn't because I can think of so many other things that I would rather do with $600. Here are just 15 of those things, just off the top of my head:

15 things I'd rather do with a spare $600 than purchase an iPhone

Fly to Europe this fall.
Good news for world travelers or wannabes. Off-peak tickets to Europe are already appearing slashed with drastic sales and they will continue to drop as the off-peak season approaches. If you go on any of the mainstream travel booking websites - Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, you can see that a round-trip ticket to several major European cities from the USA is available for below $600 if you are booking for October or November. Those fares are often good until March 31st. I ask you, on your deathbed, would you rather look back on life and say "I never was able to travel to Europe." or "I wish I had gotten a chance to see Barcelona" (or Rome or Paris). What if your dying words were "I guess I would have been able to afford that plane ticket in 2007, if I didn't buy that iPhone."

Or take advantage of last-minute travel deals like packages at resorts, long weekend specials and even cruises.
In addition to the travel websites mentioned above, you can subscribe to weekly travel deal emails on websites such as Travelzoo and Sherman's Travel. They will send you a list of the hottest deals they can find every week. This week, there were 4-night Caribbean cruises starting at $399 per person (which would be under $600 even with taxes and that's all-inclusive) and deals for many resorts, discounted hotels and car rentals. You could put together an entire vacation for yourself, easily under $600, especially if you split some expenses with friends, families or your significant other.

Buy all the "Harry Potter" LEGO sets. Or as many as I could buy with $600.
Alright. I admit this is silly. But there are several silly and geeky things I would enjoy more than an iPhone. Mock all you want. The iPhone can provide countless hours of entertainment, but only if I pay for additional things to entertain me. I could call people, but that costs extra for activation and a plan. And I already have a cellphone. I could watch movies, but I would have to pay to download the movies from iTunes. I already have a dvd player and a subscription to Netflix. I could play games and I'm sure some are included, but eventually those would get boring and then I would need to pay for more games. And I already have a playstation. But I don't have any LEGO sets. So at this point in my life. YES. I would like to buy LEGO sets more than an iPhone. Especially those neat Harry Potter sets! LEGOs guarantee an endless supply of amusement and all you need to do is buy the LEGO sets. No activation fees. No downloads. Just LEGOs! Harry Potter LEGOs simply exponentially multiply the fun - because you can play with them as Harry Potter characters and scenes or just build your own things. You can buy Star Wars and Batman sets too and then get all kinds of geeky. I would bet money that if I went through with this, someone would be calling me on their iPhone, asking to come over and play with my LEGOs.

Take a helicopter tour over Manhattan.
What does it feel like to be hovering in a helicopter over one of the most famous skylines in America? I wouldn't know, but do a quick Google search for "NYC helicopter tours" and a myriad of websites come up advertising tours that start at $59 for about five minutes and then increase by time. I would want to be up there for a while, but even the longer tours that I could find online cost well under the price of the iPhone.

Invest in a great turntable and superior set of speakers.
Vinyl produces superior sound to anything that digital players or cds can put out. Investing in good turntable and a pair of speakers is definitely the way to go if you are serious about collecting music and not just downloading tracks. Putting on a great record fills a room with an entirely different experience. And its an experience I can enjoy over and over and over.

Expand my record collection.
Along with the last one, if I were to already have a state-of-the-art turntable and sound system, I would happily spend $600 on records. All of it. Especially if I could get some rare recordings or originals, now that many records are being re-released.

Get married in Central Park.
Wedding permits are $400 to hold your ceremony in the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. Its even less for several other locations and there are additional fees for photography permits. There is perhaps no more romantic spot in NYC to get hitched. You can round off the beautiful day by holding your reception at Tavern on the Green and arriving by horse and carriage, but I'm afraid that would cost you a bit more than the price of the iPhone. Maybe it could work if instead of purchasing iPhones, you get everyone you are inviting to pitch in to your wedding fund. A girl can dream.

Spend a long weekend in a houseboat on the Seine.
A recent search of several "vacation rental" websites confirmed that you can actually rent a houseboat for 3 nights, docked on the Seine in central Paris for a total of less than $600! They often charge per day, not per person. Boats can sleep up to six people sometimes. So, if you travel with five people, your share could be so low that you would be able to afford an entire week! You can find rentals such as these on Craigslist, however, for safety and guaranteed transactions, there are several verified travel exchange websites that are run through companies and brokers. You can pull up a whole list of them with a Google search. The price of this rivals the cost of hotel rooms in Paris. Its no contest. You would also save money this way because most boats have a kitchen, so you could store groceries and not have to go out to restaurants for all three meals. What an experience! Who wants to climb six flights of stairs to a cramped hotel room when you can sit on the deck of your privately rented boat and gaze at the Louvre, Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower? Not me. But you can call me with your iPhone from the cramped hotel room and I might let you come sit on my boat.

Go skydiving. Many many times.
The average charge for a beginner diver to jump tandem (attached to a trained professional)can range from $140 - $200. There are often discounts for future jumps after that or you can purchase packages. If you go through a training program (which ranges from $200 - $500) it can be very affordable to take jumps after you are certified. Then, jumping may only cost fuel, reservation fees, or sometimes even just the cost of renting a parachute if you become a member of a specific skydiving center.

Work on becoming bilingual.
I've always dreamt of becoming bilingual or even fluent in several languages. However, I've worried about having the money to keep up with several semesters or intensive course levels. In New York City, I found a few places to take classes, with the average cost per level of around $300. With the cost of the iPhone, that means I could take two levels and be well on my way to reigniting my early training of High School French or beginning a new love affair with Italian (or Japanese or German.)

Get tattooed. In more places.
It is said that tattoos are addictive and I think it must be true, because I have three and I have no intention of stopping any time soon. My tattoos have ranged in cost from $125 - $400. So I could get an even BIGGER one for $600. Or two smaller tattoos. Or possibly four very small tattoos. I like these options.

Volunteer to rebuild homes in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Two years later, there are still so many people in the New Orleans area without homes. Habitat for Humanity has an active chapter down there and you can contact them to volunteer at a site. With $600, I could probably pay for a hotel, a rental car and food expenses for about three or four days. Most likely even more if I stayed in a really cheap hotel or found a great deal using one of the aforementioned travel websites. I have limited carpentry skills, but I could put in four days of solid work on some houses and explore a city that I've never been to, while supporting local tourism to go out at night. That would definitely be worth my $600!

Become a member of a New York City art museum... or all of them.
A yearly membership for most of the acclaimed art museums of NYC costs between $55 and $75. So pick your favorite one and become a member for the next ten years. Or mix and match. I added up the cost of memberships to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), The Whitney, The Guggenheim, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the total cost of all five was $340. What a steal! Especially considering that the MOMA admission alone is $20! All of these memberships also come with perks, such as invitations to special opening receptions, films, discounts in gift shops and restaurants and parties that are closed to the public. If you are a city dweller anywhere across the US or live near one, you could do this too! America has some amazing collections of world-renowned art!

See six Broadway shows from decent seats. Or several Off-Broadway shows. Or a ton of local underground or indie theatre productions.
The average cost of an orchestra or front mezzanine seat on Broadway is $100. Yes there are ways to get cheaper tickets and deals and discounts, but often those include standing in long lines, sitting in crappy seats way in the back or having an obstructed view. I wouldn't mind seeing a few Tony Award winning plays or musicals from a great seat in the center of the orchestra. In fact, I would even love to buy sixty $10 tickets to see some local up-and-coming great productions or thirty $20 tickets. Many cities also have great theatre companies that offer memberships. For example, I could subscribe to get priority tickets for the entire season at New York Theatre Workshop for $220. This doesn't need to be New York specific, I would support local theatre anywhere.

Spend it all in a good bookstore. Buy and donate some books to schools and libraries in need.
Give me a few hours in a good bookstore like The Strand in New York, and I will walk out with bags and bags of books. I've probably already spent $600 on books in my lifetime and read many more than that, since libraries are free. Collecting books is an investment to expand your reality. There is seriously nothing that could replace this for me and I couldn't live without them. I believe no one else should live without them, especially children. There are several in impoverished communities. There are libraries in New Orleans that have been completely destroyed and several other communities that are too poor to build them in the first place. Buy books. Read books. And then pass them on to people who need books.

I welcome comments from people regarding what they would rather spend $600 on, instead of purchasing an iPhone. Or if you wish to be contrary, tell my why your iPhone beats anything on my list for you, bring on your reasons and your life-altering iPhone experiences!