3 Things 7-21-25

 Thing One

Check Your Subscriptions And Save Some Money

I've mentioned Rocket Money before, but a recent CNET article by Joe Van Brussel caught my eye, and I thought I’d share a summary of his findings. He explored how subscriptions can quietly drain your budget and tested Rocket Money, a budgeting app designed to track income, expenses, and recurring charges. The app offers a free version and a paid version costing $6 to $12 a month for features like subscription cancellation and bill negotiation.

Van Brussel linked his accounts to Rocket Money and, in just 15 minutes, identified several unused subscriptions, including $4.34 a month for HP Instant Ink (for a printer he no longer owns) and $4 a month for a New York Times digital subscription he rarely used. He also canceled an HGTV Magazine subscription costing $50 a year. The app displayed all his subscriptions clearly, even surfacing old ones he’d forgotten about, and allowed him to cancel them himself or through the app. By cutting six subscriptions, he saved $32.32 a month, totaling $387.84 annually, plus the $50 from the magazine, for a grand total of $437.81 in savings.

He also highlighted Rocket Money’s bill negotiation service, which can lower bills like internet or cable, though it charges 30% to 60% of the first year’s savings. The article noted that the average American spends over $1,000 a year on subscriptions, with more than $200 on unused ones, underscoring the app’s value.

So, even if you don't need help negotiating your bills, checking on your subscription costs from time to time is a wise thing to do in the online age. On that score, Rocket Money isn't the only game in town, but it is the one I'm touting today.

Thing Two  

A Quick Take On Social Security And Retirement Planning

Alicia Munnell, a frequent Marketwatch contributor and the director of Boston College’s Retirement Research Institute, had this quote in an article she published:

 “If you delay taking Social Security from age 62 to age 70, your eventual monthly checks will be 76% bigger.”

That’s because of the compounding effect. For every year you hold off collecting your monthly benefits between 62 and 70, you get an 8% raise.  So, for example, if you were due to collect $1450 per month at age 62 and you could wait until age 70 to start collecting a monthly check, you would receive $2560 per month instead - for the rest of your life, with cost of living increases for inflation.  Collecting $1110 more per month is a great deal if you can hold off taking the benefit for that long.  The problem for many of us is we can’t hold off because we need the income.

Don’t wait until retirement is around the corner to start figuring out that’s a problem for you. Start working on it now. And encourage younger people you know (yes, even people in their twenties, in fact, especially them) to start now too. 

Thing Three

Just A Thought  

"Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy.

Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder.

Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder.

Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder.

Easy has a cost." - James Clear