Ask Wirecutter: How Do I Stop Wasting Money on Unnecessary Tech Upgrades?

Welcome to Ask Wirecutter, where deputy editor Annemarie Conte helps you figure out how to make the most of your stuff in real life. If you have a shopping conundrum for our advice columnist, submit it using this form.

Dear Wirecutter,

My husband and I are exactly the same when it comes to product excesses, and we feed each other’s worst instincts. This 77-inch TV isn’t OLED? Get a new one! These light bulbs have a color rendering index of only 92, but there’s a 95 bulb available? Replace them all! There’s a Cascade detergent that’s better than Complete? Buy it immediately. Apple is making a new … you get the idea. How do I overcome technology FOMO? 

Signed, M.D.

Dear M.D.,

You clearly already understand that this habit is wildly expensive and more than a smidgen wasteful.

Now, you might think that Wirecutter’s experts would be kindred spirits who also obsessively buy all the newest tech toys. But no. We firmly believe that if you’re happy with your gadgets—your iPhone, your TV, anything—you should keep what you have. Don’t upgrade something you like simply because a company is hyping a new model. “A lot of us who do this for a living subsist on what would be considered dated models that we purchased knowing they were solid for long-term use, which for us is kind of the point,” says editor of smart-home coverage Jon Chase, who used a 2010 Mac mini as his main personal computer for a decade.

Product churn is engineered for trailblazers like you, and you are no doubt being manipulated into this buy-buy-buy behavior by the capitalism of planned obsolescence, the idea that companies design a product to go out of date rapidly so that owners feel compelled to replace it with a new one. I suspect that in your heart you know these incremental upgrades aren’t worth the investment.

I’m going to assume that your retirement accounts are fully funded, you have emergency savings, and you aren’t in credit card or any other kind of debt. If that’s the case and you have enough disposable income to buy the things you want, go ahead and buy the things you want. If it makes you happy and you can afford it, go for it. But it is very unlikely that these things you want are also things you need.

What you’re asking about, essentially, is impulse control. Behavior modification is tough, especially when you and your partner are egging each other on, but here are some thought-starters for you.

When is it actually a good time to upgrade?

There’s no universally right answer. It may be when the item you own becomes impossible to use, or a feature of the new item will demonstrably change the quality of your life. But it’s important to pause and think about the afterlife of your product.

The environmental impact of electronic and plastic waste—from toxic fumes in Thailand to ocean trash islands—is distressing, and your two main options are repair/reuse or recycle. If you have an item that is still in good shape and can be used by others, find somewhere local to donate it. You may find a community center that would love your old TV or a parent in your neighborhood who would gladly snap up your last-gen iPad.

Right now, repairing a tech product is often difficult to impossible. “Manufacturers like Apple and Microsoft need to do a much better job at making [the repair] process easy and open to all,” Damon Beres, editor-in-chief of Unfinished Media, who wrote a New York Times opinion piece about this topic, told me in an email.

As for recycling, “consumers ... have very little control over how ‘responsible’ the process actually is,” wrote Beres. But still, it’s better than nothing. Manufacturers such as Amazon, Apple, and Google have product take-back programs, and Beres recommends returning a device to its manufacturer whenever possible. “Apple may be able to do more with an old iPhone due to its proprietary design that carries through to newer iPhones, just as Samsung will eventually be able to do more with Samsung Galaxy Fold devices when those reach the end of their lives,” he wrote.

Stop following tech news

Don’t let relentless tech churn spin you in circles. The latest product announcements from Amazon, Apple, and Google can feel like a dog-and-pony show, with bright lights and fancy presentations claiming that everything is a breakthrough when in fact it’s just adding a sixteenth lens onto a smartphone’s camera. (Remember Mad TV’s Mach 20 razor commercial?) When it comes to audio, for example, “You’re often paying for lower audio quality to get the experience of the newest tech,” says senior staff writer Lauren Dragan. “Also remember that the jargon they’re using to justify an ‘upgrade’ is often meaningless from an enjoyment perspective. Tidal’s MQA has recently come under scrutiny, and Apple’s spatial audio for music has yet to consistently deliver on its promise, especially when you aren’t using a full surround system setup.”

Make a list of wants and then sit on it

If some of those tech announcements leak through your firewall and you believe that you absolutely, positively need a fancy new thing, write it down. Doodle hearts around it. Make a list of pros and cons. Add it to an Amazon wish list, a shared notes app, the refrigerator, whatever. And then set it aside. “I have a wish list at Amazon for myself where I add things I want to buy. If I come back to that list in three months and I still feel the need to get it, then it’s probably something I actually want,” says senior staff writer and TV expert Chris Heinonen. (He also says that if your current TV is working fine, there’s no reason to replace it. TVs are only going to get bigger, better, and cheaper over time anyway.)

Start a splurge account

Open a dedicated savings account and auto-transfer a certain amount each paycheck. “Pick one day a month to be guilt-free enablers with your partner. Sit over dinner or a cocktail, and enjoy debating if you want to blow the $500 in the account on the Xbox from the list, or if you want to roll it over until next month so you have enough for the new TV. If you’re a competitive couple, don’t even debate, and just give the final decision each month to whoever wins your favorite card game/video game/bike race/whatever,” advises senior editor Mark Smirniotis.

Find something else to do

Shopping is a hobby for many people. But if you don’t want shopping to be your hobby, get a different one. There’s evidence that new experiences bring people more lasting happiness than new things. That said, finding a new thing to do often does mean you have to buy a new thing that improves the experience.

“Our binoculars pick has improved my bird-watching,” says senior staff writer Tim Heffernan. “And my bike was a lifeline to sanity during the first COVID wave. Replacing various worn-out bits, often after deep dives into obscure Reddit threads and vintage eBay items, was really satisfying. But especially because it made my bike a more reliable, significantly better-performing, and, yes, cooler-looking machine.” Be like Tim, and you can appreciate the joy of the hunt and its end results in a more fulfilling way.