Why iPhone Owners Don’t Need Wallets

Written by Brett Kelly

Productivity, Technology, The Phone

Of all of the the things you’d typically find in a man’s pocket (or a woman’s purse, I suppose), the wallet is probably the most pervasively adopted piece of hardware in Western civilization. Every Tom, Dick and Harry walking around almost certainly has a wallet in his back pocket. And the wallets that men carry are just as various as the men who carry them. There are big wallets, little wallets, wallets with chains, wallets as thick as a $5 paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice with zippers on them to make sure nothing falls out – the list goes on.

If you’re a guy reading this, I’d like for you to pull out your wallet and look inside. Better yet, dump it out onto the table or desk where you sit. Look over each item in the pile and ask yourself “Do I really need this with me *all* of the time?”. Chances are, no, you don’t. This is one of the reasons I no longer carry a wallet.

What then, you may ask, do I use to carry my driver license (and other plastic)? What about pictures of your children? Business cards for associates you might need to get in touch with? Lottery tickets from 6 months ago? That coupon for a free 16 oz. beverage at the local burger palace?


Well, instead of answering each of those individually, let me break down for you what I carry in my pockets every single day (as well as the specific pocket where I keep it, which isn’t by accident):

  • Left Hip (Front) Pocket: In this pocket, I keep my keys and (my favorite space saver) a small binder clip in which I keep 5 things: driver license, ATM card, health insurance card, dental insurance card and Costco card. Yep, that’s all the plastic I carry. A visual:
    Cam
  • Right Hip (Front) Pocket: This pocket is reserved exclusively for my iPhone, mostly because I’m trying to keep it from getting dinged up and scratched.
  • Left Back Pocket: My trusty Pilot G2 Mini retractable ballpoint pen. That’s it. Check it:
    Cam
  • Right Back Pocket: My Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase, which holds my index cards (which could just as easily be a Hipster PDA, by the way). Another visual:
    Cam

Believe it or not, this is all I carry in my pockets. Now, let me give you a quick rundown of where most of my “wallet”-ish pocket crap now lives:

My iPhone.

That’s right – the vast majority of stuff that lived in my wallet now sits comfortably in my pocket, accessible from just about anywhere:

  • Pictures – Why would I carry a half-dozen pictures of my family in a wallet where they would invariably become crumpled and ultimately wrecked when I can (and do) keep several hundred pictures of my family, friends and what I had for lunch last week right on my phone?
  • Contact Information – If I get a business card from somebody, it’s a camera-snap away from being locked away in Evernote, or I could just create a new contact within the built-in address book. Once that’s done, it goes into the trash.
  • Miscellaneous Bits – Random phone numbers, addresses, receipts and whatnot all get dumped into Evernote (I’ll also keep the original at home for some of these things, should I ever need to produce it for things like refunds). I’ve written about Evernote before and believe me when I say that it’s the best “wallet killer” app for iPhone I’ve come across.
  • Cash – Well, I’m married with two kids, so having cash is enough of a novelty that I usually wave it around for the few minutes that I have it before handing it over to the cashier at the Piggly Wiggly in exchange for a quart of milk.

    Joking, of course – cash goes in the middle pocket of my Levenger (but, in all seriousness, I rarely carry cash these days).

So, if you have an iPhone, you’re 98% of the way toward a wallet-free existence. You need only jet down to your local office supply joint and grab yourself a binder clip (or a box of several hundred, more likely), and get yourself a free account on Evernote. I think you’ll be surprised at how easily you adapt to not having a massive brick in your back pocket.

Oh, and if you’re the type that would rather not clog up your iPhone’s disk space with a ton of pictures – you can get yourself an account on Flickr, then download the Exposure application for iPhone, which offers a fantastic way to browse your images directly from the phone.

Oh, and I’m not affiliated in any way with Evernote or ConnectedFlow (makers of Exposure). Frankly, I wish I were.

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  • Dan
    I love my VIPER titanium money clip (http://www.superiortitanium.com). It can hold up to 60 folded bills and then spring back to hold just a single bill....plus it holds my credit cards and driver's license!

    Left front pocket - iphone
    Right front pocket - keys and change
    Left back pocket - VIPER money clip
    Right back pocket - receipts and any documents I want to carry around (Someday the iPhone might be able to just scan these, so I can have one pocket free!)

    Wish I could post a picture of the VIPER on here...
  • Jwo
    I've been sans wallet for a couple years. Money-band.com does the trick for me.
  • Brett, great idea and thanks for helping me clear out my pockets. A couple of things though...1) why are you still carrying a shirt pocket briefcase when you can use your iPhone? 2) the close-up photos on the iPhone suck. I've seen a couple of posts out there that tell you how to adjust the lens but I'm chicken to tinker with anything inside the phone. Any ideas? Have you tried adjusting your lens?

    I just opened an Evernote account as per your suggestions and like the concept. I exchange lots of business cards every week and shooting pics and filing them to Evernote would be a huge win for me but again, the close-up shots suck.

    I've always carried my Pilot G2 in my front pocket and it often settles in the bottom, protruding from my pant (is that a G2 in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?). I've had it in my back pocket for the last week and it works great.

    Is this dorky to be talking about how to arrange things in your pocket? Call me dork.

    Anyhow, thanks for helping me reduce my pocket clutter.

    BTW, come by the Renewal by Andersen showroom in Merriam, KS anytime for a free green G2.
  • I'm right there with you, except for the binder clip. Ask Santa Claus for a nice money clip. For those people who cannot give up their wallets, I highly recommend the All-Ett from www. all-ett.com If you wear jeans a lot and you must carry a wallet, then that's the wallet for you.It's half the thickness of an average wallet even when loaded with plastic. (I think this is the second time I've recommended it here.)
  • An enjoyable blog, I have to say.. being a woman, I can also relate to this... Emptying my purse is... well, I dread it... when you bring everything out, it seems to expand on the floor!!! Shredding is needed for important documents also, so emptying my purse takes a loooong time..

    Might try a few of your suggestions!!!

    Karlin
  • When I moved to an ALL-ETT billfold (see http://www.all-ett.com/ for info), I wound up cutting a lot of the junk. I still carry a good bit on me here and there, but it's still immensely thin.

    If/when I get an iPhone/Android phone, I do plan on doing something like this, but for now, the ALL-ETT is a cheap way for me to keep my wallet stuff slimmed down. I originally bought it just for use on vacation (so that the wallet wouldn't be visible on my person), but I've wound up sticking to it for over a year now, because it's just a great little wallet.

    Also, much like you and Evernote, I have no affiliation with ALL-ETT. I'm just a big fan of the product. :)
  • Dorothy
    I was reminded of the good sense of regularly cleaning out one's wallet a month or so ago when two co-workers, within the same week, had their cars broken into and their purses stolen. One had checkbooks for THREE different accounts in her purse. She had to deal with all three banks to cancel the accounts, issue new account numbers, order new checks, etc. This was in addition to the numerous credit cards she had to cancel, the driver's license she had to replace, etc. Then a week later she realized she'd had her company credit card in her wallet and needed to cancel that. Whew!

    It was a great reminder that the more we carry the more we can loose. So I pared down my already-pretty-slender wallet. I never, ever write a check when I'm out and about, so I don't carry a checkbook with me. I can count on the fingers of one hand the few times this has inconvenienced me.

    Good post!
  • Remember that the features you have spoken about are also available on most other phones and not only the iPhone so just about anyone who has a phone can use them.

    We will all be using our phones as a way to pay for things like they do in Korea which means that you won't have to carry money around anymore in the future.
  • It's funny you post this, Brett. I was musing the other day how I haul this backpack around and am basically down to an iPhone, a Kindle (LOVE this thing!), and a large Moleskine notebook. So the backpack weighs as much as the sum total of everything else that I carry in it!
  • Glenn
    I love my Smart Wallet (http://www.smartmoneyclip.com). I still like to carry a little bit of cash with me.
    Left hip - iPhone
    Right Hip - SmartWallet and car keys
    Nothing in the rear bagged compartments.
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