This Week: June 19th
Read
It seems like there is a subscription service for every! Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, Trunk Club, Blue Apron, Hot Sauce of the Month Club (this one sounds pretty awesome!), Barkbox, Dollar Shave Club, etc. At first glance you think the idea of only paying for things you need would be simple and easy to maintain; however, as you add more and more services to the mix it can quickly become overwhelming. This is why as part of my Fundamentals program we do a full audit of your subscription services so you can make an informed decision on what you are signed up for.
This article goes over 4 ways to get the most out of your subscription services. It’s a few years old (sadly Amazon Prime is now $119 per year instead of $99) but it still provides some really good tips on how to manage your subscriptions.
What I took away:
Auto-renew and trial periods can sneak up on you. Whenever I sign up for something that has a trial period I immediately set a reminder on my phone for when the free trial is over or the auto-renew is billed. At the end of the trial period, take an honest look at your lifestyle and what the service is providing. If you are truly getting value and it fits in your budget, continue with the service guilt-free. If it’s not in the budget or you are not getting enough value then save your hard earned money.
Food delivery. My wife and I have used Blue Apron and Hello Fresh in the past, and I have to say, they were both great. However, it was a little pricey per meal and after a few months we felt like we had learned enough about cooking where we felt comfortable branching off on our own. We kept the service for a little while and would manually update our delivery schedule to only receive a box every 6 weeks or so. This was great until life became hectic and we would forget to update before the “changeable by” date. If the maintenance of a service becomes too much to manually take care of, cancel it.
Do you know every single service you are signed up for? I have never used Truebill but have heard good things. Whether you use this app, pen and paper, or Excel - be sure to do one thing - have a clear understanding of what you are signed up for. Once you have your list put together, go through each service individually and decide if it’s worth keeping, can renegotiate for a lower price, or can consolidate with another service to save money every month.
Watched
As we continue to listen and read to learn more about the systemic racism that exists in our country and how we can impact real change, Emmanuel Acho has started a new show on YouTube called ‘Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man’. He started this show as an avenue for white people to ask questions about his experience as a black man. I highly encourage you to watch the 3 videos he has posted since starting the show.
What I took away:
First, I love that the whole family is there. I believe it’s incredibly powerful for kids to see how their parents manage these types of issues - and really all issues. Change is not immediate and it will take generations to fully heal this broken system.
The idea of being color blind. I have heard several people say “I don’t see color, you can be black, white, yellow, blue. I just see what’s inside.” This is often said with good intentions. Emmanuel explains he doesn’t like the concept of color blindness because there is a beauty in color and culture and that should be celebrated, “Colors and cultures are beautiful”.
As they prepared to film this video, Emmanuel was staying at a white friend’s house in Waco. He was explaining that 70 years ago he might have been killed for that. This was really eye opening because that is not long ago at all. While we have come a long way we still have so much further to go.
His hope for the future. I don’t think I can do it justice trying to explain here, so pay attention to the way he explains his hope for the future at the end of the video.
Listened
This was one of my favorite podcasts I’ve listened to in a long time. In this podcast Farnoosh Torabi interviews Seth Godin.
One of the things I really enjoy about personal finance is the mental aspect of it and how everybody has a different story they tell themselves about money. There were several things Seth mentioned that really stood out to me.
What I took away:
In his book We Are All Weird he says: “Rich is my word for someone who can afford to make choices, who has enough resources to do more than merely survive”. When we think of the word “rich”, we tend think of how much money we have in our bank account, 401(k) balance, if we own a home - and if so how much it’s worth, having an expensive car, etc. It is interesting to look at that through a different lens to define “rich” as the ability to make choices. This really made me think about the richness in my life and how fortunate I am to have the choices that I have.
Spending based on what’s coming in (income) vs spending on what makes you happy. If we spend based on our income, it is a never ending cycle of consumption. Every bonus and every raise will naturally be sucked up by something if you don’t have a plan for it. This is known as lifestyle creep. If instead we focus on what is important to us and what makes us truly happy, we are able to consciously decide on where that money goes. Farnoosh adds that this helps you appreciate the little things more. This is something that I noticed recently. Beginning in 2020 my wife and I made it a goal to only eat out once a week, which was a big shift from the norm. It became second nature to cook at home and we really began to enjoy it. When we would eat out it made the experience that much more enjoyable because we were limiting the frequency.
“All of us have significantly more choice than we think we do about money” - Seth Godin. Like he said, one way to test this is to go on a radical money diet. We have all experienced this to some degree during this pandemic. Since we have been limited to how much we can go out to eat, concerts, movies, shopping, etc. we have seen how much of our money is being spent in those areas. I believe it’s a great exercise to go on a money diet every once in a while to make sure you are prioritizing what is important to you, and evaluating what is a need and what is a want. If you decide these are choices you are not willing to make that’s fine, but understand you have the power to make that decision.
Life is not made up of finite stages. Take little steps every day to reach the goals you set for yourself.