The Cost of Entertainment
As usual, I’m going to date myself and sound really old, but I remember when television was free and there were only thirteen channels of the television dial and not every one of them came in. You had to get up and go to the television to change the channel and even when the remote control was invented, there weren’t that many channels to worry about. Television reception was dependent on an antenna that was strategically positioned on the roof and pointed towards the nearest city for the best reception. It’s a lot of fun to recall those days. I’m not sure too many people would want to go back to those days but every once in a while, the cost of entertainment and how much it seems to go up each year gets me to yearn for the “good old days” when things seemed a lot simpler.
It's clear that prices are rising in just about every category, but the cost of entertainment seems to be going up just a little faster than most other things. There seems to be more options and some of the prices are astronomical. Sports is really getting out of hand. I was a subscriber to the NFL package when it first came out but subsequent price increases got me to a point where I couldn’t justify the hefty cost anymore. Being a Green Bay Packer fan and living in New York, it was a rare day when the Packers were televised especially when they seemed to be the most consistent basement dwellers between the Lombardi and Holmgren coaching tenures. And when you went to a baseball or football game, the cheapest seats were under ten dollars. There were no luxury boxes or “on the field pre-game packages” and double-headers were almost a sure thing on Sundays. Those days are gone.
The cost of entertainment is rising fast, but you do have some control over it.
A family can’t go to Disney World for under a thousand dollars even if it’s just for a day or two. A single day admission is around $100, and Disney fans are quick to point out that even at that price it works out to be under ten dollars an hour. While that’s a valid point, when you add up everything that goes into a Magic Kingdom vacation for a family of four, almost everyone would agree that the cost of entertainment has gone up dramatically. You might think that’s normal. It’s just the way it is. But the reality is that the rising cost of entertainment might hit the senior citizen group harder than most other groups. Many are on fixed incomes and most retired people have more hours in a day to fill with activities or entertainment opportunities. What’s the best option in the face of the rising cost of entertainment?
Technology is definitely a game changer when it comes to what you’re able to watch on television. “Smart” TVs just rely on the internet rather than a cable hook up so you can really target what you spend your entertainment dollars on. A surprising number of documentaries and movies are available for free and the podcasts and channels that are available open up a whole new world of possibilities. If you can wait for a game to be over, you can see the highlights (or even the whole game) almost instantly. And the number of movies that are available to watch is absolutely incredible. Sometimes, those movies can be accessed for free so, in some ways, the cost of entertainment has gone down. That’s always a good thing.
I still love to read and that’s a pretty cheap form of entertainment, especially if you have access to a good library. In the end, how we choose to entertain ourselves is up to each one of us and, if you don’t mind what something costs, by all means treat yourself to any package that’s offered and buy the best seats in the house. I will confess that, for special occasions, splurging on the best seats was well worth the money and going to a top-notch restaurant was a treat we still talk about because we consider dining out to be entertainment with good food! It’s true that the cost of entertainment is going up but sometimes you can’t put a price tag on true enjoyment. As with everything in life, money is never the most important thing. You will long remember a great experience and cherish the memories and that’s something you just can’t buy. So go out and splurge just a little bit. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
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