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That's just silly. Sure, if you don't spend $1,000 on anything and instead invest it smartly you will make money in the long run. Why pick on smartphones? Don't buy that granite counter top. Don't buy a new car. Don't buy a new bicycle. Don't take a vacation. To me life is not about dying with the most money but about living a great life along the way. If the phone enhances that, it is worth spending money on it. For example, I take lots of photos and have over 250GB of digital shots saved, along with thousands of slides and negatives. It is worth it to me to have a phone with a great camera--makes my life better. Even on the money front, if that $1,000 phone happens to be there when I get the job interview, helps me find the location and get there on time, and then looks professional when I put it on the table during the interview, that might mean $10s of thousands of dollars more per year of salary. Or, that great phone might be used to save my life or someone else's life. Believe me, nobody calling 911 or using an app to help avoid a tornado or hurricane ever regretted having the best phone possible. Plus, there is nothing inherently wrong with using credit cards. I earn hundreds of dollars in credit card rebates every year because I charge everything I possibly can. Instead of an emergency fund sitting in a bank earning nothing right now it is far better financially to put that money into maybe a retirement account, or your 401K, or whatever. I have so much credit I could easily live for a year off of credit cards in the worst case scenario. Look at it this way, with a bank paying less than the rate of inflation your emergency fund is losing money sitting there, so at the very least invest it in the stock market or do something useful with that money while still being able to get at it quickly.
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