7 Subscriptions To Never Purchase After Retirement
Written by
John Csiszar
Edited by
Ashleigh Ray
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Financial planning for retirement can be tricky. As most retirees live off a fixed income, finances can get out of control quickly if overspending becomes a problem. This is why it’s a good idea to trim or even eliminate most subscription services once you retire.
For one thing, most subscription services are luxuries, not necessities. But on a more practical level, subscriptions can often become “phantom expenses” that rapidly drain your cash flow, perhaps without you even being aware of them.
Here’s a starter list of popular subscription types that you may want to cancel during retirement, along with a look at how much money you could save.
Meal Preparation
- How much you can save: $400 per month or more
On the one hand, meal preparation services or food subscriptions can seem like a good idea in retirement. Having healthy and delicious food delivered right to your door can not only be convenient but also can provide you with the joy of following a recipe and creating a home-cooked meal.
But these services can be costly, and one of their main advantages — saving the time it takes to go to your local market and shop — isn’t necessarily needed in retirement, when you have more free time on your hands.
Clothing
- How much you can save: $150-$500 per month
Clothing subscriptions are popular with many Americans who don’t want to style their own clothes or who don’t have the time to shop for outfits. In retirement, however, neither benefit really applies.
Retirees aren’t going to offices to work or out to clubs to look stylish, so having a flashier wardrobe is not nearly as important. Seniors also generally have more time on their hands than when they were working, so they shouldn’t be paying a premium to have home delivery of clothes when they can simply go to the mall or a local shop when necessary.
Magazines
- How much you can save: $10-$200 per month
Many seniors enjoy reading newspapers and magazines at home, but physical print journalism is rapidly being replaced by online versions.
While you may still enjoy the feel of an old-fashioned newspaper in your hands, you can generally get the same content for free — or quite inexpensively — online, without having to pay a monthly fee for what is rapidly becoming an outdated form of media.
Satellite Radio
- How much you can save: $20 or more per month
Satellite radio services typically offer low teaser rates to new subscribers, but the monthly fee can jump up to more than $20 per month after the initial promo period.
In addition to it being far too easy to forget when your account will jump up to the new, higher rate, most retirees don’t even need satellite radio. In most cases, you can get free music from sources like YouTube or even an old-fashioned radio, not to mention your own private collection of CDs, LPs and/or cassettes.
Gym Membership
- How much you can save: $10-$150 per month
One of the main benefits of retiring is that you have more free time on your hands to go explore the great outdoors. Gym memberships can be great for younger workers who need to squeeze in a workout before or after work, but retirees have the luxury of going on walks, hikes or doing other types of physical activity whenever they would like.
Most retirees also don’t generally need all of the equipment they are indirectly paying for with a gym membership.
Multiple Streaming Services
- How much you can save: $100s of dollars per month
Streaming services are popular across all age groups, and with good reason. For one monthly fee, you can get access to a seemingly endless amount of viewable content. But things can get out of control if you start signing up for every available service under the sun.
If you’re a movie fan, for example, you might be interested in a monthly Netflix subscription, or perhaps a competitor such as Hulu or Max. But if you add all three and then toss in Disney+, Starz and Apple TV, you’re looking at a monthly bill of literally hundreds of dollars.
Pick and choose the one or two services that you use most frequently and avoid the trap of signing up for more than you really need.
Anything That Renews Automatically
- How much you can save: The sky’s the limit
Probably the biggest “gotcha” in the subscription world is the standard auto-renewal feature. Whether you sign up for an online newspaper subscription, a streaming service or an Amazon “subscribe and save” purchase, the default option is generally “auto-renewal,” meaning you’ll continue to receive shipments and/or services every month, whether you want them or not.
While you are generally allowed to cancel at any time, two bad things can happen with auto-renewal: either you forget to cancel every month before a new shipment arrives, or you decide to just keep the monthly shipment after it arrives, even if you don’t really need it.
Either way, auto-renewal can be an unnecessary drain on your finances.
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