What Leak Detection Calculates
Monthly subscription total, 5-year projection, and 10-year lifetime cost of every recurring charge.
Leak Detection answers one question: what will your active subscriptions cost over a decade?
Subscriptions compound silently. $15/month sounds small; $1,800 over 10 years does not. Leak Detection sums every active line, projects 5- and 10-year totals, and feeds the monthly recovery into Runway Zero to extend the runway. Most audits surface 30–50% of subscription spend that nobody is actually using.
Quick answer
Leak Detection answers one question: what will your active subscriptions cost over a decade?
Key points
- ▸ Formula: Monthly Bleed = Σ(all recurring lines). Annual = monthly × 12. Lifetime = annual × years (5 or 10 default).
- ▸ Under $25/mo = minimal bleed. $75–150 = serious. $300+ = taking on water.
- ▸ Every dollar cut extends the runway on Runway Zero by weeks; every $50 cut shifts the bankruptcy date a month.
- ▸ Include streaming, cloud storage, apps, memberships, magazine subs, gym, software, premium accounts — anything that auto-renews.
- ▸ 10-year projection is conservative: it doesn't inflate. Real 10-year cost is usually 20–40% higher as subscriptions creep up annually.
- ▸ Annual plans should be divided by 12 and entered as monthly — same compounding, just felt differently.
Examples
- 5 typical subs @ $12/mo avgMonthly $60. Annual $720. 5-year $3,600. 10-year $7,200. Moderate drain.
- 15 subs @ $20/mo avgMonthly $300. 10-year $36,000. Hull breach — kill the bottom half this week.
- 25 subs discovered in auditTypical tech worker. Average $18/mo. Monthly $450. 10-year $54,000 — a down payment on a house.
When to use which tool
- CYAN · STABLE — Monthly bleed under $25 — minimal drain, quarterly re-audit is enough.
- GOLD · GUARDED — Bleed $75-150/mo — serious leak, kill the bottom half before next renewal cycle.
- MAGENTA · CRITICAL — Bleed above $300/mo — hull breach, 10-year cost above $36k, cut aggressively now.
Related
- Subscription Purge · Leak DetectionList every recurring subscription, see the monthly bleed and the 10-year lifetime cost. Sinking-ship visual with drip animations. Pipes recovery into Runway Zero.
- When to Run Leak DetectionFive moments where a subscription audit materially extends the runway.
- Five Leak Detection MistakesErrors that cause subscription audits to miss 30–50% of the actual bleed.
Frequently asked questions
› What counts as a subscription?
Anything that renews automatically without asking. Streaming, SaaS, cloud, apps, gyms, magazines, meal kits, premium memberships, subscription boxes, software licenses.
› Should I include utilities? Trust & accuracy
No — utilities are usage-based, not subscription. Leak Detection is for the discretionary recurring spend you can cut without losing service.
› What about annual plans I already paid?
Include them — you paid the sunk cost but the audit is about whether to renew. Divide by 12 and see if it would earn a seat on next year's list.
› How should I use a decision framework in real life? How-to
Use a decision framework to expose the tradeoff, not to outsource the decision. Write down the inputs, compare the output with your constraints, then ask what would change the answer. The strongest use is scenario testing: base case, conservative case, and failure case.
› Is this financial, legal, or tax advice? Trust & accuracy
No, this is not legal, financial, tax, medical, or professional advice unless the page explicitly says that use case is supported. It organizes assumptions so you can inspect them. Verify high-stakes choices with qualified people who can review facts, contracts, regulations, and downside risk.