What do your subscriptions really cost?
One slider: what your subscriptions add up to per month. The result is the number nobody calculates before signing up.
Count everything that renews by itself: streaming, cloud storage, apps, gym, delivery clubs. Most people who actually add it up land between €40 and €120 a month — and are surprised.
€540 a year. €2,700 in five.
That's what €45 a month of subscriptions quietly costs.
The same money set aside instead would be about €3,060 after five years at a modest 5% — the difference between "where does it go?" and knowing.
Subscriptions are engineered to be judged one month at a time — €12.99 sounds like nothing, five of them are a holiday every year. Finding them all is usually the most profitable ten minutes in personal finance, which is why subscriptions are one of the five numbers in Gen Finance: listed once, confirmed each payday, impossible to forget about again.
Common questions
What counts as a subscription?
Anything that charges you without asking again: streaming, music, cloud storage, apps, gym, phone insurance, delivery memberships, premium tiers you tried once. If cancelling it requires an action, it belongs on the list.
Is the 5% investing comparison realistic?
It's a deliberately modest illustration — real returns vary and aren't guaranteed. The point isn't precision; it's that recurring money has a compounding alternative, and the comparison should exist before a renewal, not after five years of them.