haha
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It seems that your son does not "want to waste money". He seeks goals that are more valuable to him than his perceived value of the cash. He is following his utility function, like any other human who is at least partly autonomous. You on the other hand perceive that the value of the cash is greater than the value of the phone. But he is the economic actor in this case, not you.Thought I had replied to this, but see that I had not....
Yes, he is a fine boy... straigth As, no drugs, good friends from what I can tell (even though he is very quiet and does not have many)... no girl friend (wife thinks he might be eyeing one, but to reserved to do anything)...
Funny you mention about a $35,000 car... my nephew was about to purchase one a bit higher than that.... while still living at home... sis did not know what to tell him except that if he could afford a car he could afford his own place.... fortunately for her (and IMO for him) the bank shot him down.... his job was not permanant....
I only had one conflict with my sons. I didn't want them to drink or smoke, but they didn't desire those things anyway. I had no interst in their sex lives, beyond some education about safe sex.
What I did try to prevent, that they wanted to get, was sport bikes like Ninjas. They are both speed crazy, and I have seen too many motorcycle accidents. One of them now gets his fix from a fast car, double black diamond snowboarding, and mountain biking.
The other bought a Carrera and drives on the track.
I am not exactly nuts about any of these things, but they are, and IMO these beat sport bikes as to the chances of staying alive with an intact spinal cord.
So I picked my spots, and feel pretty good about it.
Ha