100 Money Lies

$1,600 / year

US households averaged about $69 a month on streaming video alone in 2025. Count every subscription and the average lands near $219 a month — while the people surveyed estimated their own spending at $86.

The gap between $219 and $86 is the whole business model. Subscriptions are priced to sit below the threshold at which you'd examine them, billed automatically so no decision is ever re-made.

Open your bank statement. List every recurring charge — from the statement, not from memory.

2× the purchase

At a 22% APR, near where average credit card rates have sat through 2025–26, a balance paid at minimums can take well over a decade to clear and cost more in interest than the original purchase.

Every lender has landed on the same trick. Quote the monthly. Never the total. It works because monthly figures are small and comparable to your paycheck, while total figures are large and comparable to nothing.

Before any financed purchase, calculate payment × term, plus fees. Decide on that number.

$166,000 gone

$100,000 growing at 7% for thirty years ends near $740,000 at 0.1% in fees. At 1%, it ends near $574,000.

A fee doesn't cost you the fee. It costs you the fee plus everything that money would have earned over the rest of the time you hold it. That's why fees are quoted annually — an annual percentage sounds trivial.

Convert any fee into its thirty-year cost before agreeing to it.