theFIREstarter

Rip up your commitment to unnecessary monthly expenses and see your early retirement investment accounts grow.

The sun has finally got his hat on in the UK! Yes we’ve had around a month of solid good weather (and boy were we due some), and the citizens have emerged from their dreary dwellings into their sunny gardens, lush parks and sandy (crowded!) beaches. I’m loving it, you’re loving it, and people are already complaining that it’s too hot… you can’t please everyone I guess 🙂

Anyway this brought up the thorny subject of my cinema pass subscription, something I’ve always felt was a bit of a waste of money, and as I’ll be spending most of the next few months busy outdoors I finally decided to ring up and cancel the damn thing.

So what are the benefits of “making a sacrifice” such as cancelling your cinema pass*? Well the immediate double kicker of financial benefits are obvious:

• Save £16 per month, for the rest of your life, bringing your costs to cover by investment income down.
• Invest those £16 every month instead, compounded over 10 years would roughly be equal to £2,768… Not an insignificant amount I think you’ll agree!

However there are some hidden benefits as well, which most people would often not consider

• No more dreaded feeling of “I really should watch/do/read/go to X otherwise I am wasting my money on the monthly expense” – This was the main benefit for me I think. When you feel like doing something you are paying for is a burden then you really have to ask yourself whether it is worth signing up for!
• More free time – Ok I realise going to the cinema is actually quite enjoyable, but especially now the sun is out, it really hammers home what other fun, more healthy, outdoorsy activities you could be doing with your spare time.
• It felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders when I’d gotten off the phone to the cinema company, I guess this is just a combination of all the points above but the cumulative effect seemed far greater than just thinking “oh I’m saving myself £16/month”. It genuinely felt liberating in a way that is hard to describe, but if you’ve cancelled anything like this recently, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about 😉

So there you have it, what burdensome monthly or weekly expenses could you cut out of life? A five minute phone call or email is normally all it takes to free yourself from that nagging feeling in the back of your brain that you are flushing your money down the toilet and give your early retirement savings a nice boost at the same time!

So what are you waiting for… get cancelling today, and go and play in the Sun before it goes back into hiding for another year! 🙂

*You can obviously substitute any other kind of regular purchase here such as gym membership, magazine subscriptions, or even just something that you’ve gotten into the habit of buying every month or week, which you now feel the strange compulsion to continue to do so.