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College kids: help me persuade my daughter

PaulinMaryland

PaulinMaryland

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 17, 2006
231
0
Maryland, USA
I was going to buy my 12th-grade daughter a MacBook in July 2009, before she heads off to college. But $1650 has unexpected fallen into my lap (from unused leave from my last job) and it's burning a hole in my wallet! So I've urged my daughter to let me buy her the MacBook now; she can enjoy it an additional 9 months. But she's concerned that if she accepts my offer, she'll miss out on any improvements that come along before July. I've explained that...

  • The new aluminum MacBook is the last major improvement we're likely to see before Fall 2009,
  • Her MacBook will be the faster model (so she'll have the backlit keyboard) with a full complement of RAM, and
  • I'm buying it from an eBay Mac dealer who will configure it with a 320GB 7200rpm hard drive, making it reasonably futureproof.
Still she resists.

I fear that if I don't buy it for her now, I'll do something foolish like use it to pay bills.

Help!!
 
I'd really suggest changing your thread title!
As far as the issue, I'd tell her, "you snooze, you lose"... either get it now, or find a way to pay for it yourself later!
 
For Real?? She has the chance to get an awesome new computer that she does not have to pay for and she is complaining? If she doesn't want it I'll take it.:confused:
 
On one hand I admire her for not jumping up and screaming "yes yes, let's get it NOW!!!". But at the same time I question her sanity. :)

And yes, please change the thread title. It's kind of scary.
 
i'd suggest putting that money in a savings account.

wait till june-ish when they start that free ipod-back-to-school deal.


don't be an early adopter....the product could be improved from design/production flaws by summer '09


you'll also have the option to buy a refurb new model come summer '09

i'd wait
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (126GB, 2.3): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.2.0 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)
I would wait, you'll get an improved computer and a free iPod if you wait until summer.
 
PaulinMaryland said:
I was going to buy my 12th-grade daughter a MacBook in July 2009, before she heads off to college. But $1650 has unexpected fallen into my lap (from unused leave from my last job) and it's burning a hole in my wallet! So I've urged my daughter to let me buy her the MacBook now; she can enjoy it an additional 9 months. But she's concerned that if she accepts my offer, she'll miss out on any improvements that come along before July. I've explained that...

  • The new aluminum MacBook is the last major improvement we're likely to see before Fall 2009,
  • Her MacBook will be the faster model (so she'll have the backlit keyboard) with a full complement of RAM, and
  • I'm buying it from an eBay Mac dealer who will configure it with a 320GB 7200rpm hard drive, making it reasonably futureproof.
Still she resists.

I fear that if I don't buy it for her now, I'll do something foolish like use it to pay bills.

Help!!
Click to expand...

From one father to another; let me give you a little advice:

Your kind gesture and her response tells me she expects it, and will continue to EXPECT daddy provide... i.e. spoiled.

Here is my suggestion: Tell her she can have it now, and she can have the honor of paying half. Take it or leave it; she will appreciate it so much more and respect you more in the long run.
 
Wow, I don't know any 12th grader that would turn down a free computer.

Devil's Advocate for a second- At least if you got it for her in July. That would be 9 months less time she could have broken it.

I guess you could always buy it for yourself and make her all jealous
 
Interesting... I don't think your daughter is being ungrateful, but rather 'consumer savvy'.

First, let me say that you do have a point. When it comes to technology, you can't wait forever to make a purchase - the next greatest thing will always be just around the corner. That said, your daughter probably won't have any real use for the computer in the summer. On top of that, there are a few (rumoured) releases slated for summer 2009. For instance, Snow Leopard (OS) and Nehalem (processor) are scheduled for release next summer (we think). Now, I doubt the processor will make its way to the MB, but I'm pretty confident that the computers will receive a slight performance improvement. Finally, there are always back-to-school promo's in September, so your daughter can bag herself a new iPod and then sell it for some cash (if she chooses).

From my experience, a laptop will get banged around on daily travels to and from the library. From a practical perspective, buy the computer right before school starts so you can get maximum mileage out of it. Once your daughter finishes college/university, her need for a laptop will probably expire.

If you're worried about spending the money, I suggest you put it in a 6 month GIC and, when it has matured, you can use the interest to buy yourself a case of beer ;)

Remember, ignore the hype and buy according to your need. If you don't need the computer now, then buy it when you do (i.e. September). Just something to think about anyway... good luck!
 
I think you should pay bills with it. It will be the best return on the money overall. I am sure the debt carries a higher interest rate than the return on a savings account would be, and you are eventually going to have to pay the debt anyway. So I think you should save the interest over the next 9 months and buy the computer when she actually needs it.
 
If I was in your daughter's situation, I might be thinking that this will probably be the last computer you would buy for me -- it will have to last me all the way through college. So I'd rather wait until the beginning of college, and get whatever updates are available between now and then.

That way, my computer will only be four years old when I finish college, instead of five.
 
I would suggest you buy her this:

10408.jpg



then go and invest the rest of it.
 
The only money I owe...is about $900 on my Apple credit card! OK, I'll listen to my daughter and pay off my Apple card. But the money won't be there in the summer. Some big medical, dental, or care repair expense will surely come along by then.

As for changing my title: First, How? Second, gimme a break. "Beat up on" differs from "Beat up". The former means assail with words; the latter, assail with fists. The title is an obvious play for humor.
 
PaulinMaryland said:
The only money I owe...is about $900 on my Apple credit card! OK, I'll listen to my daughter and pay off my Apple card. But the money won't be there in the summer. Some big medical, dental, or care repair expense will surely come along by then.

As for changing my title: First, How? Second, gimme a break. "Beat up on" differs from "Beat up". The former means assail with words; the latter, assail with fists. The title is an obvious play for humor.
Click to expand...

Not sure about the title thing, but I just found this, so maybe I missed it.

If money is that tight, then I would suggest paying off the credit card and getting something cheaper and/or saving the money. I have no idea why people believe they must have the newest and best things for them or their kids.
 
Stick it into a 6 month CD at the best rate you can find then let her buy what she wants during the summer free iPod promotion. If she already has an iPod then she can sell her old one or new one. There is no reason for her to have a notebook right now. Your daughter is smart and it seems like you need too save your money right about now. Do you have access to the education discount? If not, you are throwing away $100 that your daughter will have access to when she is accepted into college.

Of course it's the last major improvement we will see in a year, but the problems could be ironed out with minor speed bumps/price reductions. Does she actually need the 4 GB of RAM? Does she want a 7200 RPM drive to create more heat and be louder? Does she need more than 250 GB HDD?

Maybe you should let her make the decisions as you are going to spend a whole lot more than the 1650 you have saved. (Plus the cost of DDR3 RAM will plummet between now and next summer).
 
I'm also a senior...

I'm also a senior who will be looking at a mbp. I also am helping a friend buy a mbp for college.

Both of us are waiting till June when snow leapord should come out. Also intel will be releasing their core i7 chips around then to replace the core 2 duo. These chips can yeild up to 50% better performence.

Please listen to your daughter because she is right. Plus apple should run the back to school program in june. Just wait and invest that money somewhere else for the next couple of months
 
Jack Flash said:
Listen to your daughter!
Click to expand...

I agree. My daughter will be heading off to college next August as well. I'm waiting to get her a laptop until July so she can have the most up to date computer as possible. I fully intend that laptop to last her through 4 years of college and by delaying the purchase it stands a better chance.
 
I am also a senior getting ready to go to college. Ive used the same dell pc for 8 years.

I couldn't wait until the summer to get my hands on one of those sexy new macbooks so i ordered one this weekend. You are not going to play football with your laptop; a few months of use will NOT make that big of a difference. In addition, there's a printer promotion going on right now: buy a macbook and get $100 rebate for a printer. I bought a $100 printer so its free. :)

I payed for my macbook myself so its a different scenario but i say just buy it if you really want. She wont be disappointed when she opens that box and sees a nice, shiny new macbook.
:)

Good Luck.
 
Her sister received a MacBook for college and so will she; it's not a question of whether, but when. The only money I'll save is if the price drops and, of course, interest on the principal. If I pay off my debt now, I'll simply have to incur debt when I buy the MacBook next July. I'm just time-shifting things.

I can't use the academic savings if I get a Mac that's custom configured by a dealer.

Meanwhile, my wife, daughter and I have been sharing two computers. Getting a third computer now would give us one computer per user so we don't have to fight over who gets to use it.

At today's prices, I think it's prudent to get the maximum RAM. Folks who say it's not needed unless you do video processing fail to consider that with more RAM, you can keep many programs and processes open at once.

But readers have opened my eyes to forthcoming improvements I hadn't taken into account and to the fact that prices may fall more steeply than I'd anticipated.
 
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