Good Riddance Cable & Hello Netflix 6

 

This Little $9 Antenna Beauty Saves a Bundle

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:

# Years Savings $

1

$867

5

$5,012

10

$12,116

20

$36,465

30

$85,398

40

$183,737

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 1,000th 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

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

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.

6 thoughts on “Good Riddance Cable & Hello Netflix

  1. Reply Mr. 1500 Mar 14, 2013 5:12 am

    How do you watch Netflix on your TV? We’ve had a Roku box for a while and it works great. Hooking up the laptop to the TV drove me nuts after a while.

    • Reply Net Worth Snowballa Mar 15, 2013 3:18 pm

      I’ve heard good things about the Roku, but I actually went with a Wi-Fi enabled Blu-Ray from Costco that I picked up for around $90. The Blu-ray capability sold me on going this route over the Roku. I hear you on the laptop hookup to the TV; that process is very aggravating.

  2. Reply CashRebel Mar 22, 2013 9:22 pm

    Dropping cable is such a great way to save some money and force yourself to get outside/read. I tried it until football season started and I had to get cable again to watch the Bears… because I’m a pansy. I’ve got the Roku though, and as soon as they start selling sports online, I’m dropping cable.

    By the way, I tried clicking on your RSS Feed button, and the link didn’t seem to work properly. I use Google Reader to keep track of who has new blog posts so I’d recommend fixing that button. Have you ever used Feed Burner? It’s worth looking into.

    • Reply Net Worth Snowballa Mar 30, 2013 9:11 am

      Thanks for stopping by, Cash Rebel. I hear you on the sports issue. That was my biggest struggle in cancelling cable. Fortunately, I’m still in the local market where I can watch my Seahawks dominate on Sundays on the free over the air HD channels. If I was in a different market not showing their games, I’d have to strongly consider cable again. The free HD channels provide plenty of NFL, NCAA football, and occasional NBA action, but my main viewing attention is for the NFL action.

      Thanks for the info about the RSS feed issue. I will look into it this weekend. I’m not the most tech-savvy and am still trying to learn how to navigate and operate this blog. I haven’t looked into Feed Burner yet, but I’ll have to research that as well.

  3. Reply JC @ Passive-Income-Pursuit Mar 28, 2013 4:23 am

    My wife and I did the same thing a little over a year ago except we added Hulu to go with Netflix. The savings have been great!

    • Reply Net Worth Snowballa Mar 30, 2013 9:14 am

      What are your thoughts on Hulu, JC? My girlfriend recently added that to view some specific programs, but I haven’t been super impressed mainly because you still have to watch their advertisements. Keep rolling with those super savings!

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