This week, Apple joined the impulse-spending army as they announced their own buy now pay later (BNPL) service.
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Buy Now Pay Later is "a type of short-term financing that allows you to make purchases and pay for them at a future date, often interest-free" - it's kind of like layaway but you get the item now.
Last year, I bought an iPad Air that I didn't want to pay $700 upfront for.
With having an Apple Card, I could finance the iPad for 12 months with 0% interest. It felt like a no-brainer, and it was.
I can pay the exact same amount as buying it in full but rather than pay it all at once, I can just spread the payments over the next year at like $65/month.
The nice thing about 'buy now pay later' services is that they're a lot better than credit card debt - A LOT better.
With credit cards, if you don't pay off the balance every month, you get charged insanely high interest rates.
Sometimes 25% or more.
Example: If you were to pay off a $1,000 balance at 25% over 12 months, the interest would be $116:
With Buy Now Pay Later, you can have a $1,000 balance but rather than being charged interest, you agree to pay off that entire balance over a certain time period, such as 12 months, at no additional (or very minimal) cost.
The service itself is great, but the mindset it can create around spending is not so great.
Within the past couple of years, the following acquisitions have happened:
Three massive companies have all acquired 'buy now, pay later' service platforms.
This means it's going to become even easier to finance purchases and in my opinion, this is going to lead to people having severe cash flow problems.
Why?
Because every time you use a 'buy now pay later' service, you're raising your minimum viable spending.
Your minimum viable spending is the amount of money that you need to spend each month to keep up your current way of life.
For example, my monthly spending prior to the iPad purchase was about $1,700/month. Now, it's almost $1,800.
(I had to get the Apple Pencil too.. so tack on another $10 to the monthly payments ✏️)
Now, I also want to get the new iMac because my laptop sounds like an airplane taking off every time I try and do anything more than opening Chrome.
Could I afford to buy an iMac straight up? Nope 😔
Could I afford it by financing it for a year? Kinda 😬
And this is what's dangerous.
Even though you may be able to afford something by financing it doesn't necessarily mean you can truly afford it.
By slowly increasing your monthly spending, you're inching closer and closer to getting in a financial bind.
The most important principle in personal finance is almost so simple that I don't like saying it: Spend less than you make
By doing this, it's hard to get in a bad spot financially. If you're able to spend less than you make, you'll be in a better position than a vast majority of people. And if you use a BNPL service and you're still spending less than you make, it's not necessarily a bad decision to use it.
It all comes down to your own personal situation.
Now, I'm not opposed to Buy Now Pay Later services.
I actually think they're a good thing for our generation because it can easily help people avoid expensive credit card debt.
However, these services aren't a free pass to spend more than you make.
Before using buy now pay later to purchase something, take a look at your monthly spending, make sure that the new payments won't push you past spending more than you make, and if it's something that you truly want to purchase, go for it.
Money's meant to be enjoyed, but it also needs to be managed carefully.
By taking a few minutes to think through your situation and review the effects of a purchase, you can begin spending money and being financially responsible at the same time.
