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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that

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Speaker 2: you can save a lot of money by reviewing all

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Speaker 2: your recurring payments and subscriptions. Sometimes things add a lot

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Speaker 2: to our lives and sometimes they don't. We want to

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Speaker 2: make sure that what we're paying for is worth it.

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Speaker 2: To help me with this tip, I invited Joel and

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Speaker 2: Matt from the How to Money podcast to share some strategies.

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Speaker 2: They're with me here now as they will be for

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Speaker 2: a few episodes this week, So Joel and Matt please

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Speaker 2: take it away.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Laura. Yeah, the subscriptions that we sign up for

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Speaker 3: they end up owning us more than we think they

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Speaker 3: can be, like little little vampires, little leeches, bleeding us

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Speaker 3: dry over time. And streaming subscriptions they are one of

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Speaker 3: the worst culprits most of us. Obviously, we don't want

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Speaker 3: to go back to the days of cable. Our favorite

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Speaker 3: streaming services that they're nice to have. We can binge

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Speaker 3: on whatever new series that we're interested in. But with

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Speaker 3: the success of these streaming services, more and more companies

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Speaker 3: are ratcheting up the price or charging us cable esque

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Speaker 3: subscription fees more than ever before. So it is incumbent

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Speaker 3: on all of us, on you out there, to keep

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Speaker 3: watch over which ones that you bring into your life

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Speaker 3: and then to acts the ones that you don't use.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, a recent study found that the majority of Americans

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Speaker 4: vastly underestimate how much money they spend on subscriptions every

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Speaker 4: single month, and not just by a little by hundreds

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Speaker 4: of dollars. The average person underestimated their monthly subscription cost

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Speaker 4: by one hundred and thirty three dollars specifically. And that's

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Speaker 4: a lot of money that's going on accounted for in

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Speaker 4: your life. So if you're wondering maybe why you aren't

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Speaker 4: able to save as much as you'd like to, the

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Speaker 4: culprit just might be the subscriptions that you've forgotten about.

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Speaker 4: And thirty eight percent of folks in that same survey

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Speaker 4: so that subscriptions are making them crazy. They complain that

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Speaker 4: they're hard to keep track of and that they're causing

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Speaker 4: additional stress. And so we're not suggesting a spartan subscription

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Speaker 4: free existence, but we are saying that it would be

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Speaker 4: wise and financially beneficial to whittle down the number of

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Speaker 4: recurring subscriptions in your life.

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Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, one of the worst subscriptions that we've seen.

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Speaker 3: BMW they are planning to charge drivers eighteen bucks a

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Speaker 3: month to access heated seats that are already installed in

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Speaker 3: their cars. The hardware. It's like, literally, it's already there.

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Speaker 3: But BMW, they don't want just a one time sale

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Speaker 3: from you. They want some of that recurring income that

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Speaker 3: these other businesses out there have been able to snack.

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Speaker 3: And so in a world that has become subscription obsessed,

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Speaker 3: where like every company they want just a small handful

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Speaker 3: of dollars each and every month from you, it might

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Speaker 3: be more difficult, but it's totally possible to pair back

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Speaker 3: and to mostly steer clear of them.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. So here's what we would tell you to do. First,

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Speaker 4: make a list of all the subscriptions that you're paying for,

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Speaker 4: and that means taking a look at your actual spending

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Speaker 4: and combing through your debit or credit card statements. Subscription

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Speaker 4: fees fester and they'll continue to impact your finances if

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Speaker 4: they're left in the dark. Leave no stone unturned on this.

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Speaker 4: While you're looking for these fees. While you're looking for

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Speaker 4: these subscriptions, the recurring ones and you might be shocked

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Speaker 4: at the recurring payments that you're making that you even

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Speaker 4: just forgot the youse signed up with.

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Speaker 3: That's those free trials that come back to ritching the

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Speaker 3: butt exactly.

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Speaker 4: And so we say next after that, after you have

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Speaker 4: shown a light, you found what subscriptions you actually have

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Speaker 4: in your life, cut the ones that you aren't using

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Speaker 4: with regularity. You should typically be able to do that

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Speaker 4: in just a step or two on the company's website.

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Speaker 4: It's not a terribly difficult process, but it's an important

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Speaker 4: one because it could help you claw back dozens or

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Speaker 4: even hundreds of dollars of your own money moving forward

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Speaker 4: each and every month.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but that being said, there are now companies and

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Speaker 3: apps out there who have popped up that will cut

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Speaker 3: your subscriptions for you for a fee. Of course, they

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Speaker 3: often want to keep close to fifty percent of the

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Speaker 3: money that they save you, or you can pay a

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Speaker 3: flat monthly fee. Nothing like pain a subscription to manage

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Speaker 3: your other subscriptions. The truth is negotiating lower prices for

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Speaker 3: recurring subscriptions and cutting the ones that you no longer want.

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Speaker 3: This is not rocket science. You can totally do this

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Speaker 3: yourself and then your money it can be better spent elsewhere, right.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we promise we don't want you to cut

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Speaker 3: the subscriptions that you use and that you love, the

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Speaker 3: ones that are actually providing you real value, but we

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Speaker 3: do want you to stop spending money on stuff that

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Speaker 3: isn't a priority so that you can use those dollars

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Speaker 3: in a more effective manner.

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Speaker 1: What great advice.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Joel and Matt. Being wise about recurring fees

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Speaker 2: and subscriptions can free up quite a bit of cash

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Speaker 2: for things you would find more fun. For more great

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Speaker 2: financial tips, please listen to Joel and Matt at the

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Speaker 2: how to Money podcast and in the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 2: our time.

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Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just

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Speaker 1: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then Breakfast Pod.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I

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Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

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