You need either an answering machine or voicemail to keep track of your phone calls. I used to not have an answering machine, and I'd miss calls all of the time. I even had one relationship break up because of it – she thought I was not there for her, because i did not know she was calling – my answering machine was broken and giving me no messages at all.

Really, now a days, the answering machine has been mostly replaced by voicemail. Voicemail is cheap, although you do have to pay some money every month. But the good thing about voicemail is that you can check it from anywhere and it is generally more reliable than an answering machine, which can burn out or have its tape break. Of course, the other popular feature of voicemail is that it is compatible with a cell phone. Basically, if you do have a cell phone you will probably get voicemail automatically because it is the only way to save messages on your cell phone.

There are two basic types of answering machine. The newer one is electric. It saves messages on a special chip which can be easily reset with the touch of a button. But my favorite answering machine is still the old kind, which uses a miniature cassette tape to record messages. First of all, the old analog cassette answering machine has more memory than the other kind usually. At least half an hour in fact. Second of all, most digital answering machines make it too easy to reset the messages. If you press the wrong button, they are all gone.

An analog machine, however, just re-records over the messages as it goes if you tell it to reset, so if you change your mind, chances are that most of your messages are still there. You can even take the tape with you if someone leaves a particularly funny or memorable message, and play it for a friend on a mini casette tape player. And with a digital answering machine, if you trip on the plug or there is a power outtage, with most models, all of your messages will be lost whereas, with the tape variety, they will still be stored, safe and sound, on the casette tape. This is so much more convenient, and the tapes tend to last for a long time, so it is not like you'll have to be springing for a new tape every week or two.