The much-anticipated new iPhone X — pronounced iPhone 10 — has officially arrived.
It comes with a host of new features, but at a steep price: $999.
While many tech enthusiasts will gladly fork over a grand to upgrade to the new model, the price has left others balking. If you’d rather blow your cash elsewhere, here are six things you can do with $1,000 instead.
It’s that time of year. At $4.25 a pop for a tall size, you’d be able to consume 235 of the fall drinks for the same price as an iPhone X. But to drink a full $1,000 worth of pumpkin spice lattes before December, you’d need to make about three Starbucks runs per day.
Avocado toast doesn’t come cheap, but $1,000 goes a long way. At a chain like Le Pain Quotidien, where avocado toast runs $12 in New York City, you can eat breakfast for 83 mornings in a row for the price of a new iPhone.
Spend seven luxurious days cruising through the Caribbean for the same price as one iPhone X. Both Norwegian and Royal Caribbean offer routes from Florida and Louisiana down through the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands for around $1,000 per person.
Follow the trend of prioritizing experiences over things, and splurge on concert tickets to see your favorite band. Tickets go for as low as $100 to see Billy Joel perform at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden, but floor seats can run up to $2,000 resale.
Day passes for the Anaheim, Calif., resort run $110 per day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, although normal weekdays only cost $97 per visit. Stretch your vacation even longer by purchasing a multi-day pass, which discounts daily tickets, but expect to shell out for food and souvenirs.
Never underestimate the power of compound interest: $1,000 invested today will more than double over 10 years, growing to $2,225 with an 8 percent rate of return. Put away that much every month and it will only take you 25 years to become a millionaire.
But even if monthly contributions of $1,000 are out of reach for you — as they are for the majority of Americans — if you have an extra grand now, you can use it to jump start your retirement savings by contributing to an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan and taking advantage of any company match. Or you could put it in a Roth IRA or traditional IRA, which are both individual retirement accounts that offer tax benefits.
If you’re among the 69 percent of Americans who have less than $1,000 in savings, you can use that iPhone money to pad your emergency fund. Most experts recommend building up three to six months worth of living expenses in a rainy day fund, but some say it’s smarter to have between eight months and year’s worth of cash in the bank. Either way, an extra $1,000 is sure to help you get started.
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The price of a new iPhone X could buy you 235 pumpkin spice lattes or a 7-day cruise