Good Riddance Cable & Hello Netflix 6

This Little $9 Antenna Beauty Saves a Bundle

In an effort to watch less television, save money, and reduce my advertisement exposure, I’ve opted to ditch cable and go with a combination of over the air free TV with HD network channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX), Netflix streaming, and the occasional Redbox Blu-ray disc for date nights with the girlfriend. Cable provides a big cross-section of spending fat most people should trim to improve their financial positions. The benefits of this are threefold:

1. Less cash spent monthly on cable funneling more money into savings
2. Less time spent watching television providing more free time for enriching activities
3. Fewer advertisements watched

I have made a concerted effort to not watch regular broadcast TV programming outside of sporting events and to reduce the amount of TV watched overall and have seen many positive effects. As for reason one, the financial gain, let’s take a closer look.

Cable packages run the gamut from basic cable primarily of the over the air free channels plus a couple oddball stations rarely watched costing $30/month all the way to the $150/month premium packages. For comparison’s sake, I’ll use a figure of $80/month which is a common, median cable package in my area. My current free TV/Netflix/Redbox combination averages $10/month and provides me with more potential entertainment than I’d ever have time for and presents a cost savings of $70/month over a standard cable package. Rather than fork over that cash to the greedy cable companies, we will invest the savings instead. Using an expected interest rate of 7%, this $70 monthly savings does some pretty amazing things compounded over time as shown below:

Stated differently, in financial independence terms, to completely have funding for cable television for the perpetuity of my life, I would need $28,000 saved to support that cable habit which assumes that I have a 3% safe withdrawal rate of savings equating to 400 times the monthly charge. $28,000 is a large sum to save and more than I care to squander for cable. I’m pretty sure I can handle missing the 1,000^th replay of Point Break or not figuring out what the dollar bill really was trying to tell Nic Cage in National Treasure when this burgeoning snowball of cash awaits by forgoing cable.  

I Really Couldn’t Care Less, Nic Cage

Meanwhile, the Netflix experience has been very positive with the quality and variety of programming such as the Walking Dead, American Horror Story, and Friday Night Lights for me along with Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars for my girlfriend  (where I conveniently find an excuse to leave the house or heck, even do the dishes rather than watch. Maybe that’s her M.O.)

Great Show and Acting Performances by Tammy & Coach T

 Just as important, this has resulted in viewing less television time overall which has led to more time spent cooking, with loved ones, lifting weights, walking, and reading. All of these activities are hugely beneficial and add to the dollar savings exponentially by reducing the number of takeout meals from watching less TV while spending more time in the kitchen and maintaining better health by replacing TV time with walks and weight lifting (I.E. better cardiovascular health, body composition, and reduced medical expenses, FOREVER!)

Finally, we are bombarded constantly with more advertisements than ever in a multitude of mediums. Limiting TV time to Netflix and Redbox and cutting the daily time spent watching TV provides an intangible but significant boost by substantially reducing the amount of advertisement exposure we’re subjected to. This helps reduce the trap of consumerism saturating media daily.

I’m not ready to fully forgo television and movie entertainment, but ditching cable is a great way to build up the net worth snowball and improve one’s well-being, and a great decision I’d strongly endorse to all.