bazzer:Handle9:bazzer:Handle9: Personally I'd put the sweet spot at around 4 years.
Based on what? As I pointed out earlier in the thread, financially you're better off after 3 years (assuming 6% interest). Under the same assumption, 4 years of $15 works out to about $640 in today's money (compared to an extra $500 cost for the "buy" option).
You'd need to be making 20% interest on your money for the sweet spot to be around 4 years. Actually, maybe that isn't so far fetched if you also have credit card debt you could clear instead.
Based on that you could loose your job, crash your car etc etc etc and have to give up Sky which could mean that your $699 is a sunk cost, which you get no benefit out of.
Time value of money calculations are all very well but they don't take into account possible change of circumstances.
To me flexibility is worth an extra couple of hundred dollars over 4 years. Obviously if you're in a very stable situation where you're sure you won't be giving up Sky then it's a different story. For us mere mortgage slaves however...
I just didn't know where you got the 4 years from? Your idea is perfectly fine, sure you may lseo your job etc. Why would the sweet spot be 4 years? That doesn't make any sense.
If I was pretty sure I was going to keep sky for more than 4 years continuously then I'd pay the up front cost. 4 years is approx 3 years payback + 1 year safety factor to allow for risk. If you have a higher threshold for risk then you may want to allow less than that.
If I thought that there was a possibility that my circumstances change over that period would change then I'd rent.
It makes sense to me. It may not make sense to you but I can't really help that.
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