The sentiment behind “The American Dream” is heartwarming; the opportunity for Americans to achieve prosperity through hard work. I bet you work hard, do you feel prosperous? If you are like most Americans the answer is likely, no. So what happened to that nostalgic ideal of the perfect family with 2 kids and a dog, living in the perfect house with a white picket fence, two cars in the driveway, and enough money left over to save for retirement?
What happened is this, technology has killed the American Dream!
If you are like most Americans, technology plays an imperative part in your life, after all you are reading this online! I’m guessing not only do you pay for internet at your home but you probably have a cell phone, possible even a home phone, cable or satellite, and some streaming services like Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Spotify. In addition you might even have cloud based services like, Microsoft Office 365 , Photoshop/Adobe Creative Cloud, data storage, web hosting, and the list keeps going and going. Then there are the apps, the add-ons, the tablet data, the e-magazines, and soon to come are mobile data packages for your car. I mean, who doesn't want their car to be a mobile hot spot?! You get where I am going with this…
Prior to 1990 you, or more likely your parents, only paid for one thing: a home phone, that’s it. In addition, long distance was really expensive so either you learned to talk ridiculously fast or you wrote letters. I know, writing letters?!? That’s crazy talk! There was no internet, no cable tv, no cell phones, and no data plans to worry about. Yes, it was the dark ages, but we survived!
So, what kind of financial impact is technology having on us today? Let’s take a quick look using our average “American Dream” family: 2 parents, 2 kids
Home Internet: $50/month (with enough speed for all your streaming services)
Cell Phone: $250/month for an average family plan
Home Phone: $40/month
Cable/Satellite: $120/month
Hulu: $7.99/month
Amazon Prime: $8.25/month (not including tax)
Netflix: $8.99/month (price increases from $7.99 to $8.99 in May 2015)
Spotify: $4.99/month
Microsoft Office 365: $6.99/month
Adobe Creative Cloud: $9.99/month
Web Hosting: $4.99/month
GRAND TOTAL: $512.19 per month or $6,146.28 per year!
Granted you may not have these exact services but chances are you subscribe to a good amount of them and maybe even have more. Regardless, this is a significant amount of your hard earned cash, enough to fully fund a Roth IRA, or help pay down that credit card, car loan, or mortgage you've been chipping away at. No wonder it was easier to achieve The American Dream before technology. To make matters worse the average income hasn't increased much in 40 years so here we are in a modern age trying to buy more with less.
So, how do we fix this?!! Never fear, there is always a solution…
1. Grab your bank and credit card statements from last month. By grab I mean go online, login and print them out… oh how I love the internet.
2. Highlight all of your technology and streaming services.
3. Just for fun (masochistic fun) tally them all up to see what the technology in your life costs you each month! Now for full impact, multiply it by 12 months! Ahhhhh, scary right?
4. Now, cancel all the things you have been meaning to cancel or the things you don’t actually use. You can probably just do it online. Go ahead, do it now and come back to this later.
5. Find cheaper alternatives, perhaps start using Amazon’s music streaming services or Pandora instead of Spotify.
6. Next, team up with a friend and split the cost. Perhaps they pay for Hulu and you pay for Netflix and you simply password share. Did you know you can share your Amazon Prime subscription with up to four people? That’s right! So why are you paying for it when your sister, aunt, cousin and neighbor are all paying for it too? (Don’t worry they can’t see what you buy…each person’s account remains their own but you both get all the perks!)
7. See if you can buy a yearly subscription at a lower rate. For example if you buy a yearly subscription to Microsoft Office 365 on Amazon it is only $29.99/year instead of $83.88 if you had paid monthly. Granted you have to wait for the box to be shipped to you but who cares, you have free two day shipping thanks to the Amazon Prime you are now sharing with a friend right?
8. Last but not least, call your providers (phone, cable etc) and ask for lower rates! Tell them you are thinking about changing providers because other companies are offering better plans. If you can reference a specific competitor price plan your current provider will transfer you to their customer loyalty team who has the power to match these competitor rates. For example, my Dish Network bill had slowly crept up to about $91/month (and that is without any movie channels) however when I called them and told them Time Warner was offering the same service plus a few more channels for only $39.99 per month, they matched it. It took some patience but in one phone call I saved myself $600/year. Not bad for 15 minutes work!
Technology is not going anywhere, but it doesn't mean we need to sacrifice our big picture goals to enjoy its perks. It’s time to take back The American Dream!
Did I miss a monthly service? Do you want to share your experience about lowering your rates? Questions, comments and stories welcome! Join the conversation by leaving a comment here or connect with us on Facebook.
What happened is this, technology has killed the American Dream!
If you are like most Americans, technology plays an imperative part in your life, after all you are reading this online! I’m guessing not only do you pay for internet at your home but you probably have a cell phone, possible even a home phone, cable or satellite, and some streaming services like Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Spotify. In addition you might even have cloud based services like, Microsoft Office 365 , Photoshop/Adobe Creative Cloud, data storage, web hosting, and the list keeps going and going. Then there are the apps, the add-ons, the tablet data, the e-magazines, and soon to come are mobile data packages for your car. I mean, who doesn't want their car to be a mobile hot spot?! You get where I am going with this…
Prior to 1990 you, or more likely your parents, only paid for one thing: a home phone, that’s it. In addition, long distance was really expensive so either you learned to talk ridiculously fast or you wrote letters. I know, writing letters?!? That’s crazy talk! There was no internet, no cable tv, no cell phones, and no data plans to worry about. Yes, it was the dark ages, but we survived!
So, what kind of financial impact is technology having on us today? Let’s take a quick look using our average “American Dream” family: 2 parents, 2 kids
Home Internet: $50/month (with enough speed for all your streaming services)
Cell Phone: $250/month for an average family plan
Home Phone: $40/month
Cable/Satellite: $120/month
Hulu: $7.99/month
Amazon Prime: $8.25/month (not including tax)
Netflix: $8.99/month (price increases from $7.99 to $8.99 in May 2015)
Spotify: $4.99/month
Microsoft Office 365: $6.99/month
Adobe Creative Cloud: $9.99/month
Web Hosting: $4.99/month
GRAND TOTAL: $512.19 per month or $6,146.28 per year!
Granted you may not have these exact services but chances are you subscribe to a good amount of them and maybe even have more. Regardless, this is a significant amount of your hard earned cash, enough to fully fund a Roth IRA, or help pay down that credit card, car loan, or mortgage you've been chipping away at. No wonder it was easier to achieve The American Dream before technology. To make matters worse the average income hasn't increased much in 40 years so here we are in a modern age trying to buy more with less.
So, how do we fix this?!! Never fear, there is always a solution…
1. Grab your bank and credit card statements from last month. By grab I mean go online, login and print them out… oh how I love the internet.
2. Highlight all of your technology and streaming services.
3. Just for fun (masochistic fun) tally them all up to see what the technology in your life costs you each month! Now for full impact, multiply it by 12 months! Ahhhhh, scary right?
4. Now, cancel all the things you have been meaning to cancel or the things you don’t actually use. You can probably just do it online. Go ahead, do it now and come back to this later.
5. Find cheaper alternatives, perhaps start using Amazon’s music streaming services or Pandora instead of Spotify.
6. Next, team up with a friend and split the cost. Perhaps they pay for Hulu and you pay for Netflix and you simply password share. Did you know you can share your Amazon Prime subscription with up to four people? That’s right! So why are you paying for it when your sister, aunt, cousin and neighbor are all paying for it too? (Don’t worry they can’t see what you buy…each person’s account remains their own but you both get all the perks!)
7. See if you can buy a yearly subscription at a lower rate. For example if you buy a yearly subscription to Microsoft Office 365 on Amazon it is only $29.99/year instead of $83.88 if you had paid monthly. Granted you have to wait for the box to be shipped to you but who cares, you have free two day shipping thanks to the Amazon Prime you are now sharing with a friend right?
8. Last but not least, call your providers (phone, cable etc) and ask for lower rates! Tell them you are thinking about changing providers because other companies are offering better plans. If you can reference a specific competitor price plan your current provider will transfer you to their customer loyalty team who has the power to match these competitor rates. For example, my Dish Network bill had slowly crept up to about $91/month (and that is without any movie channels) however when I called them and told them Time Warner was offering the same service plus a few more channels for only $39.99 per month, they matched it. It took some patience but in one phone call I saved myself $600/year. Not bad for 15 minutes work!
Technology is not going anywhere, but it doesn't mean we need to sacrifice our big picture goals to enjoy its perks. It’s time to take back The American Dream!
Did I miss a monthly service? Do you want to share your experience about lowering your rates? Questions, comments and stories welcome! Join the conversation by leaving a comment here or connect with us on Facebook.