The past few years I have been pursuing my MBA. It has been a long arduous journey and one of the reasons I have not posted much in the past few years.

Of the many things that I have learned and been able to apply to my current employment one of the things that has stuck with me throughout is that the goal of a financial manager is to maximize shareholder wealth.

What this means is that most companies are not about the consumers in the majority of situations but want to try to make the most money possible. What does this mean for us?

Well increasing net income sometimes means that they create a product that we love. For instance, Apple when they introduced the iPhone, or even the iPod before, were thinking about the design of the product as it appealed to the customer. This caused record profits and their stock shot up nearly 16 percent over the course of the year.

But what happens when they have a stable product but yet their sales are declining. Take Netflix for instance, their stock price over the past year dropped nearly 9 percent. While they continued to add subscribers, their growth rate slowed and new competition entered the market.

Instead of looking for new markets or rebuilding their strategic position in the current market they decided in order to increase shareholder wealth they changed their policies to force more customers to join. With no new blockbuster hit like Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, they hit a wall on subscriptions. So how do they attract more people to the market, they make sure that people sharing passwords create their own account.

Short-term this may increase stock prices, but long-term they need a new hit like Stranger Things to increase subscriptions.

What this made me do though is rethink my subscriptions. Many of us made the switch from cable to streaming because we saw more value in picking the services we wanted. But after a few years we all had multiple services.

Here is my list:

Netflix
Hulu
Showtime
Amazon Prime
Peacock
Paramount+
XBOX Game Pass Ultimate
Apple TV
ESPN+
Spotify
Sirius XM

There may be others, but this is what I know for sure. A few were done when I wanted to watch a particular show or game and forgotten about. But with Netflix’s latest policy change I decided to look into the one’s that I use.

The good thing, since I am a grad student, I get a student discount where I bundle Spotify, Hulu, Showtime, and ESPN+ which Verizon also gives me as a customer. Apple TV was part of the PS5 purchase and I have six months free. Still debating with the new season of Ted Lasso being the last if I will renew or not. Also I renewed Sirius at 6.99 a month for the next year since my purchase was automobile related.

For quick math and financial purposes the total on all of these is just under $90 a month.

If I add in back the discounts that I currently have it would be closer to $120 a month. Add $75 for internet access and I am paying essentially the same as what I would have with cable. However I do like the ability to watch what I want and binge watch, which does not always happen with cable.

Once the announcement was made with Netflix I liked at my list and decided it was better to eliminate services. The first to go was XBOX. Since I recently bought a PS5 I no longer needed game pass. Plus I realized I was not using it as much as I had before. Net savings $14.99 a month.

The second I looked at was Paramount+. I signed up to watch the NFC Championship on my computer as I was working remotely. Net savings $9.99 a month.

And lastly was Netflix. I went back and forth for a little bit on canceling, but the last few months I have watched a total of two shows on the network. Net savings $15.49 a month.

So my final cost savings to me: $40.47 or nearly 45 percent of my monthly bill.

While I do not know what Netflix will do about their lost subscriptions or even if it will have an impact in the long-term, I do know that I am not alone in this thinking. It is always good to reevaluate your finances periodically to see what you are paying and what you are using. This is a common analysis for many corporations as you look at your returns and cash flow. If your debt is higher than your equity you need to adjust your strategy.