A good thing I picked up from my parents was a voracious appetite for reading. Mornings at the Mossesgeld household would start with mom and dad passing around the different sections of The Philippine Star. I joined the family reading roulette once I was old enough to understand text more complex than “See Jane run. See Jane jump.”
Once I started spending my whole life online, print news became less important. Why bother dirtying your fingers, when you can fire up the ol’ Web browser and read the headlines online? (While we’re at it: Since I work from home, why bother with the daily bath?)
Each issue of the Philippine Star costs P20, a price that applies even to the weekend editions. That’s P140 a week or P7,280 in savings every year. What happens if I don’t spend for the print edition, going online for news and wisely investing my yearly savings instead?
Last week, I computed how quitting smoking can make you a millionaire. My yearly savings from not smoking also figured out to P7,280 (3.5 packs of Marlboro Lights a week, P40 a pack). In my optimistic scenario, I annually invested the P7,280 in imagined savings into a mutual fund that earned 20% a year. The same math applies to my yearly savings generated from not buying newspapers:
By the third year, I've more than tripled my money (P7,280 x 3 = P21,840; compare that with P26,499.20 in the Year 3 row), while by the fifth, my ROI is nearly times 8. By year 20, I would've earned 223 times my initial investment, well over the million-peso mark.
Yes, taking 20 years to make a million isn’t exactly a "get rich quick" scheme. And by taking advantage of The Philippine Star’s free online content, I hurt the broadsheet’s bottom line. If enough people stop buying the print edition, the newspaper will have to cut costs, lay off people, and become less capable to stay afloat. Would the Star still have enough resources to properly report the news? Will I end up with no recourse but to get my news from the Philippine Daily Innuendo?
Some long-time newspaper readers – who clearly value the contributions of so-called “baseline news” organizations – may feel obliged to keep the subscription-based print business model feasible, at least until newspapers (everywhere) finally figure out how to earn enough money online.
But would you pass on the chance to become a millionaire, even if it took 2 decades to do so? Even if you can’t find a local financial product that can net you 20% every year, there’s nothing wrong with saving for a rainy day.
Image archangel_raphael on Flicker
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