$890,546 is My 30-Year SaaS Tax

The Spreadsheet

I added up my subscriptions last month.

Opened a spreadsheet. Listed every tool. Every monthly charge. Every annual plan divided by 12.

$2,400.

Knew it was a lot. But it felt manageable. Spread across a bunch of tools. Each one "only" $50 or $100 or $200.

Then I did the math over 30 years.

The Number

$890,546.

I stared at it for a while.

That's 3 Lamborghinis. A house down payment in Toronto. Or $2.3 million if I'd invested it at 7% instead.

For tools. Software. Things that could disappear tomorrow if the company gets acquired or shuts down or decides to 10x their pricing.

The Invisible Tax

Here's what makes this insidious.

A $20/month tool feels like nothing. Coffee money. Round up error.

Over 30 years, with 5% annual price increases—which is conservative, look at what Adobe and Figma and Notion have done—that $20/month tool costs $15,972.

I have maybe 15 subscriptions running right now.

Each one felt reasonable when I signed up. "Just $50/month." "Only $100/month." "Worth it for the time savings."

Nobody shows you the 30-year number. Because if they did, you'd think twice.

The Visibility Problem

We don't have a tools problem. We have a visibility problem.

The cost is real. But it's spread across decades, hidden in monthly charges, buried in annual renewals you forgot about.

You never see the full number because it never hits you all at once.

Until you sit down with a spreadsheet and do the math. Which almost nobody does.

The Calculator

So I built something that does it for you.

Enter your tools—or just your total monthly spend if you don't want to list them. Answer three questions about how you use them.

Get the 30-year number. The category breakdown. The opportunity cost if you invested instead.

And your "SaaS personality type." There are 7 archetypes. I'm the "Tool Collector." Reformed, apparently.

Here's the link: founderreality.com/tools/saas-tax

What Changes

This isn't about being cheap.

Some tools are worth paying for forever. I'll pay for Figma until I die. Same with a few others.

But some tools? I'm renting something I could own. Paying monthly for something I could build once. Subscribing to convenience I don't actually need.

The calculator doesn't tell you what to cut. It just makes the invisible visible.

What you do with that is up to you.

The Question

I keep thinking about that $2.3 million number.

Not the $890K I'll actually pay. The $2.3 million it would become if invested instead.

That's the real cost. Not just the money leaving my account. The money that never gets to compound.

Every subscription is a bet that the tool is worth more than 30 years of compounding.

Some are. Most aren't.

Conclusion

Go run your numbers: founderreality.com/tools/saas-tax

Takes 2 minutes. No login. Free forever.

The number will probably surprise you.

Mine still does.