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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by electriccars@startrek.website to c/frugal@lemmy.world

When I think about bills, I annualize them. $30 a month? That's $360 a year. $5/mo? $60 a year.

I use this to help me grasp the long term cost of all my decisions, but nobody else I know does this.

For instance, my brother and I are moving soon into 2 separate apartments (we currently share a 2 bedroom) and the new complex doesn't have Google Fiber Internet. I complained to my brother that on top of everything else I'll have to pay $5/mo extra for Google extended storage I was getting for free.

He said it's only $5/mo, just get and don't worry about it. I was like, that's $60 a year which is basically a Costco membership. He said "oh hmm, good point yeah"

So I'll work on reducing my storage usage on Google to be able to stay on the free tier, but am I alone in thinking this way about everything I buy?

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[-] yenahmik@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

The next level of this is to calculate the amount you would need to have saved to support the cost in retirement. E.g. if you have a $60 annual cost, you need to save $1500 just to cover it for the rest of your life (following the 25x rule for retirement savings).

[-] electriccars@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago

The time value of money crosses my mind similarly. The value of this $5 today if invested instead would be worth XX in X years. Lol

[-] Rusky_900@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

That's a great way to look at it.

this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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