Mindful Money Moves: 16% Savings Through Annual Plans

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In this episode of Maximum Lawyer, CEO Becca Eberhart shares a cost-saving tip for individuals and businesses: switch from monthly to annual subscriptions to potentially save 16% or more.

Many services offer discounts for annual payments and urges listeners to actively review and manage their subscriptions. Becca advises checking for unused services and negotiating better deals, cautioning against long-term contracts that may limit flexibility. Listen in for encouragement and ideas to be proactive and mindful in financial management for immediate savings and long-term fiscal health.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:24 Opting for annual subscriptions instead of monthly ones
• 03:54 The importance of actively reviewing and managing subscriptions
• 05:14 Cautions against locking into long-term contracts

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Transcripts: Mindful Money Moves: 16% Savings Through Annual Plans

Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the maximum Lawyer podcast. Maximum lawyer podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson metrics. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.

Becca Eberhart (00:00:24) - Welcome to another episode of the Maximum Lawyer podcast. I am Becca Eberhardt, CEO at Maximum Lawyer in. Today's quick tip will help you save on your recurring expenses. With no shortage in subscription services, it's easy for us to lose count of the subscriptions that we accumulate. The convenience of auto payments often causes us to lose track of the cumulative impact on our finances. Without hyper attention to our accounts, it's effortless to overlook the gradual accumulation of these seemingly minor expenses. One effective strategy for saving money is opting for annual subscriptions instead of monthly ones. It's common for companies to offer the equivalent of two months free when we pay them on an annual basis. By making this simple switch, you could potentially save 16% on your recurring expenses. When signing up for new services, we're usually presented with two options one pay a certain amount per month, or option two save a certain percentage and pay upfront for the year.

Becca Eberhart (00:01:29) - When this happens, our brains see that small amount, let's say $100, or then we see the other amount $1,000 for the year. Our brains tell us the smaller amount feels better or safer, but in reality, at the end of the year, you'll have spent 200 more dollars for that decision for the exact same service. This is applicable to various services such as Dropbox, acuity, Your Appointment Scheduler, Canva podcast hosting, YouTube premium, your Amazon Prime membership, Disney+. Almost all services offer this discount except for Hulu, no ads, and I have a bone to pick with them. Sometimes an annual plan is offered even if a company doesn't advertise that they have them. For example, you did not hear this from me, but SiriusXM does not advertise that they have annual plans. But I loathe monthly expenses. So I chatted in and asked if they had any available. They do and there is a cost savings to them. So if it appears paying monthly for something you or your law firm uses is the only option, it doesn't hurt to ask.

Becca Eberhart (00:02:40) - If all you did was change your monthly subscriptions to annual plans, you would cut at least 16% of all of those costs combined. For example, Amazon Prime has one of the highest subscriber counts. They are 1499 per month, which is $179.88 per year, or the annual Prime membership is $139 per year, saving you $40.88, which is almost a 23% savings. Now that $40 savings isn't going to change much in your life or business, but I do think that small purchases combined add up quickly, amounting to good chunks of money that could be repurposed somewhere else. And I also think that this can help you condition the way you think about money. Many people don't even want to think about money. So this exercise of reviewing where your money is going and always committing to the annual package will save you and keep you on alert to ways that you can pay less for the things you do use. Now, many of you have a bookkeeper, an accountant, or a CFO managing your finances and you might not like to deal with finances.

Becca Eberhart (00:03:54) - But here's my only warning. It's important to recognize that their perspective may not be aligned entirely with your financial goals. Your vested interest in saving money might not be as significant to them. Therefore, I do urge you to take an active role in reviewing your expenses to ensure that you're not overpaying after the first time that you review your subscriptions. Create a calendar invite at a minimum of biannually, but quarterly is preferred to review your expenses and make sure you're still using what you're paying for, and confirm that you're getting the best deal on what you are using. By doing this by annually or quarterly, you can catch some of the things before they renew and cancel them before it's too late. Be sure to set your calendar event to recurring on a quarterly or biannual basis, so it automatically adds this event, and you'll avoid too much time passing between reviews. Your focus during each review should be canceling what you no longer need, and saving where you can switch your plan from monthly to annual. Now, while committing to annual plans is beneficial, I do caution against locking yourself into contracts or subscriptions of longer than a year, even if the company is offering great savings for the commitment.

Becca Eberhart (00:05:14) - The fast paced evolution of technology with new products launching every month, our own personal changing preferences and business growth, it may render certain services obsolete or irrelevant. Keeping flexibility in your subscriptions allows you to adapt to these changes without incurring unnecessary costs, and being locked in can hinder your ability to explore newer and more efficient options. We'll go much deeper into vendor contracts in a podcast of its own in the future. In summary, adding in this practice will not only contribute to immediate cost savings, but it will also create a proactive and mindful approach to how you manage your personal and business finances.

Speaker 1 (00:06:02) - Thanks for listening to the Maximum Lawyer podcast. Stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content. Go to Maximum lawyer.com. Have a great week and catch you next time.