When was the last time you decided to pay Netflix? I don't mean when was the last time you paid Netflix-that was probably the 1st 10th 15th or some other day of the month (mine’s on the 24th, apparently). But when was the last time you really decided to pay them? If you’re like most people, that was probably years ago when you first subscribed, and it’s been a painless monthly draw ever since.

Subscription businesses are incredibly powerful, and every industry wants a piece. You can now subscribe to movies, tv, music, software, cloud storage, razors, food, wine, socks, underwear, and random boxes of “curated lifestyle collections”.

Once a customer signs up, they become repeat buyers for a long, LONG time. You’ve probably heard the analogy of the frog and the pot of water; If you throw it in a boiling pot of water, it’ll jump right out. But if you put it in room temperature water and slowly increase the heat, it doesn’t flinch.

Consumers are similar. Why? Humans are status quo people- we like things the way they are. It’s mentally easier for us to avoid thinking about or making choices. Sound lazy? Maybe. But it’s the way we’re wired.

Vanguard surveyed the couple million retirement plans they had, and proved how effective inertia can be: 50% more people were saving over 50% more dollars for their retirement if they were automatically enrolled, then given the choice to opt-out (rather than the traditional choice to opt-in):

By now you probably know where this is going (and where the title came from).

2 years ago this month I signed up for Acorns- a spare change investing app. It’s not going to replace my retirement account or brokerage investment account. It was just another account to see how much spare change could grow to if I automated saving/investing and left it alone. Well:

This isn’t a paid endorsement for Acorns (they’re one of the dozens of companies that offer this ease and simplicity of automatic investing, including ours). The point is this: There’s never been an easier time in history to set money aside for your future self. Automatic withdrawals are virtually free everywhere, there’s no transaction charges for the convenience.

If you’ve been meaning to build a bigger rainy day fund, save for a house, start a brokerage account, save for retirement, or something else… start an automatic plan. It’s probably going to be the most valuable subscription you ever started- as long as you’re “lazy enough” to never cancel.

I should note a couple of things:

1. The default “spare change round-up” is 1x. That means $.01-.99 from every transaction on your linked cards/bank gets transferred to Acorns for investment. I set mine to 3x for an average of $1.50. I figured “If I spend $40 at the pump or $100 on groceries- what's another $1.50?”
2. I have a recurring $20 weekly contribution. It hasn’t killed my bank account yet, and I don’t think it will.
3. I chose aggressive investing- Acorns has 5 investment choices, from conservative to aggressive. They 4-5 low-cost Vanguard or iShares ETF’s. The aggressive investment performance added nearly $2,000 in market gain to the “spare change” I saved. The whole compounding thing worked out well recently, and I believe will continue to over the long run. Of course, past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, and your investing experience won’t be the same.

How I Easily Saved $11k With One Decision (And You Can Too!)