Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that
Speaker 2: you can save a lot of money by reviewing all
Speaker 2: your recurring payments and subscriptions. Sometimes things add a lot
Speaker 2: to our lives and sometimes they don't. We want to
Speaker 2: make sure that what we're paying for is worth it.
Speaker 2: To help me with this tip, I invited Joel and
Speaker 2: Matt from the How to Money podcast to share some strategies.
Speaker 2: They're with me here now as they will be for
Speaker 2: a few episodes this week, So Joel and Matt please
Speaker 2: take it away.
Speaker 3: Thanks Laura. Yeah, the subscriptions that we sign up for
Speaker 3: they end up owning us more than we think they
Speaker 3: can be, like little little vampires, little leeches, bleeding us
Speaker 3: dry over time. And streaming subscriptions they are one of
Speaker 3: the worst culprits most of us. Obviously, we don't want
Speaker 3: to go back to the days of cable. Our favorite
Speaker 3: streaming services that they're nice to have. We can binge
Speaker 3: on whatever new series that we're interested in. But with
Speaker 3: the success of these streaming services, more and more companies
Speaker 3: are ratcheting up the price or charging us cable esque
Speaker 3: subscription fees more than ever before. So it is incumbent
Speaker 3: on all of us, on you out there, to keep
Speaker 3: watch over which ones that you bring into your life
Speaker 3: and then to acts the ones that you don't use.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a recent study found that the majority of Americans
Speaker 4: vastly underestimate how much money they spend on subscriptions every
Speaker 4: single month, and not just by a little by hundreds
Speaker 4: of dollars. The average person underestimated their monthly subscription cost
Speaker 4: by one hundred and thirty three dollars specifically. And that's
Speaker 4: a lot of money that's going on accounted for in
Speaker 4: your life. So if you're wondering maybe why you aren't
Speaker 4: able to save as much as you'd like to, the
Speaker 4: culprit just might be the subscriptions that you've forgotten about.
Speaker 4: And thirty eight percent of folks in that same survey
Speaker 4: so that subscriptions are making them crazy. They complain that
Speaker 4: they're hard to keep track of and that they're causing
Speaker 4: additional stress. And so we're not suggesting a spartan subscription
Speaker 4: free existence, but we are saying that it would be
Speaker 4: wise and financially beneficial to whittle down the number of
Speaker 4: recurring subscriptions in your life.
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, one of the worst subscriptions that we've seen.
Speaker 3: BMW they are planning to charge drivers eighteen bucks a
Speaker 3: month to access heated seats that are already installed in
Speaker 3: their cars. The hardware. It's like, literally, it's already there.
Speaker 3: But BMW, they don't want just a one time sale
Speaker 3: from you. They want some of that recurring income that
Speaker 3: these other businesses out there have been able to snack.
Speaker 3: And so in a world that has become subscription obsessed,
Speaker 3: where like every company they want just a small handful
Speaker 3: of dollars each and every month from you, it might
Speaker 3: be more difficult, but it's totally possible to pair back
Speaker 3: and to mostly steer clear of them.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So here's what we would tell you to do. First,
Speaker 4: make a list of all the subscriptions that you're paying for,
Speaker 4: and that means taking a look at your actual spending
Speaker 4: and combing through your debit or credit card statements. Subscription
Speaker 4: fees fester and they'll continue to impact your finances if
Speaker 4: they're left in the dark. Leave no stone unturned on this.
Speaker 4: While you're looking for these fees. While you're looking for
Speaker 4: these subscriptions, the recurring ones and you might be shocked
Speaker 4: at the recurring payments that you're making that you even
Speaker 4: just forgot the youse signed up with.
Speaker 3: That's those free trials that come back to ritching the
Speaker 3: butt exactly.
Speaker 4: And so we say next after that, after you have
Speaker 4: shown a light, you found what subscriptions you actually have
Speaker 4: in your life, cut the ones that you aren't using
Speaker 4: with regularity. You should typically be able to do that
Speaker 4: in just a step or two on the company's website.
Speaker 4: It's not a terribly difficult process, but it's an important
Speaker 4: one because it could help you claw back dozens or
Speaker 4: even hundreds of dollars of your own money moving forward
Speaker 4: each and every month.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that being said, there are now companies and
Speaker 3: apps out there who have popped up that will cut
Speaker 3: your subscriptions for you for a fee. Of course, they
Speaker 3: often want to keep close to fifty percent of the
Speaker 3: money that they save you, or you can pay a
Speaker 3: flat monthly fee. Nothing like pain a subscription to manage
Speaker 3: your other subscriptions. The truth is negotiating lower prices for
Speaker 3: recurring subscriptions and cutting the ones that you no longer want.
Speaker 3: This is not rocket science. You can totally do this
Speaker 3: yourself and then your money it can be better spent elsewhere, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, we promise we don't want you to cut
Speaker 3: the subscriptions that you use and that you love, the
Speaker 3: ones that are actually providing you real value, but we
Speaker 3: do want you to stop spending money on stuff that
Speaker 3: isn't a priority so that you can use those dollars
Speaker 3: in a more effective manner.
Speaker 1: What great advice.
Speaker 2: Thank you Joel and Matt. Being wise about recurring fees
Speaker 2: and subscriptions can free up quite a bit of cash
Speaker 2: for things you would find more fun. For more great
Speaker 2: financial tips, please listen to Joel and Matt at the
Speaker 2: how to Money podcast and in the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 2: our time.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then Breakfast Pod.
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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I
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