A generation ago, a “subscription” meant you’d get a magazine or newspaper delivery. Today, newspapers are all but gone, yet subscriptions are core to everyday life.
They’re affordable, convenient, and largely app-based so they’re easy to add and manage. And there’s a subscription for everything: from necessities like medication, communications like cell phone and internet services, to art supplies, bougie food delivery boxes, car washes, gym memberships, and on and on.
The Creeping Costs
The challenge with subscriptions is that they’re so affordable, their creeping costs are small individually but collectively daunting. Forbes reports that today, the average American adult spends approximately $219 per month on subscriptions, with TV streaming services leading the pack at 4.5 subscriptions on average, totaling $77 per month. There are more than 200 niche streaming services, offering up fantastic specialty programming from all-things golf to British crime dramas. Choice and flexibility is off the charts, but so is the cost at $924 annually on average spent on streaming alone, before the costs of the internet service or devices.
All together, the average US adult spends over $2,600 per year on subscriptions—a pretty penny that would shock most consumers. The 2024 figures are up 15% from 2018, when the survey was first conducted. Younger generations, even more comfortable with the “subscription economy,” trend even higher.
Where Does Your Money Go?
Check out the percentage of US adults using these popular subscriptions—how many of these show up on your monthly expenses?
Don’t Set It and Forget It
A key problem with recurring subscriptions is that we hold on to them, even if we no longer use them. More than 83% of survey respondents said they don’t conduct regular reviews of all their digital subscriptions, which means you may be paying for that fitness app you tried out last year, or that streaming service you watched the blockbuster series on but then forgot to close after the trial ended.
And yes: subscriptions like these can seriously erode your financial well-being now and create huge challenges for your loved ones after you pass away. Your family may have no idea where to begin to reign in all your scattered memberships and subscriptions and get them canceled.
KindredBox Saves You Money Now, and Saves them Stress Later
If you’re ready to get your digital life in order (and start saving cash now) KindredBox can help!
One of the 12 categories in the KindredBox legacy planning platform is “Memberships.” This category quickly and easily captures all the information of your memberships and subscriptions, organizing them by type. Here’s how it works:
Going through this process will help you identify what you’re spending and whether you have subscriptions you’re no longer using—if that’s the case, time to cancel and reduce your spend! Organization is the beginning of comfort and control, and you’ll love the insights it provides.
If you already have a KindredBox, we recommend conducting a Memberships audit once a year to add new subscriptions, delete old ones, and keep your budget balanced and your brain calm and assured. You’ll also find a great sense of peace, knowing that you’re making membership management so easy and painless for your survivors after you pass. It’s an amazing feeling!
And yes, KindredBox is a digital membership. We get it. Hopefully, you do too! We love our lifetime membership because it’s a single purchase that will hold all your life’s details with security, accuracy, and customizability for the rest of your life—even decades and decades with no more than a small annual server maintenance fee. Move your plan to a lifetime membership or enroll today and start saving money and stress for years to come.