Does Your Mobile Phone Make You $941 A Year Happier?

Everyone but everyone has a mobile phone. They seem to be critical to our modern lifestyle. So much so that we fiddle with them 1,500 times a week.

My mobile phone plan costs me $59 for unlimited monthly calls and 5GB of data. That's $708 per year. My Samsung Galaxy mobile phone has to be replaced every 3 years which is a cost of $699 /3 = $233 yearly. So my mobile phone costs me $941 per year. But does my phone make me $941 a year happier

But does my phone make me $941 a year happier?

20 years ago the Internet and smart phones didn't exist. But I can't remember walking round at the time and thinking:

"Geee, I'd be happier if I could look at information on computers around the world  and talk to my friends this very second".

This was not a limiting factor to my happiness.

I think we all have a base level of happiness.  If you analyse how happy you feel right now, calamities aside, most people would answer "I am pretty happy". And this base level of happiness does not vary as we become more technically advanced or have new toys to play with.

In fact I bet if a happiness meter was inserted into me 20 years ago then its rating would be the same as now - a standard rating of first world happiness.

So mobile phones are a happiness irrelevancy. If only I had put the money that my mobile phone (and all the other unnecessary gadgets I seem compelled to buy) into my superannuation I could retire earlier and avoid the very real calamity of working longer than I need to.

I could retire earlier and avoid the very real calamity of working longer than I need to

Surely an early retirement would make me happier than the use of a mobile phone?