Rs 8,400 a year on OTT apps? It can become Rs 6.4 lakh in 20 years. CA warns about the quiet leaks in your wealth

A Rs 149 subscription here, a Rs 299 plan there, and your monthly entertainment is sorted. While it may feel harmless, over time, these small payments can quietly snowball into something far bigger than most people realise. A recent post by CA Nitin Kaushik on X has reignited the debate on lifestyle spending and long-term wealth building, showing how everyday convenience subscriptions might be quietly shaping financial outcomes over decades without most users even noticing until the impact becomes impossible to ignore.

CA Nitin Kaushik took to X to break down what he called “quiet leaks” in personal wealth, citing OTT subscriptions as an example. He wrote that the average Indian spends around Rs 8,400 every year on OTT platforms. At first glance, it feels like a small, manageable expense. But he argued that this same amount, if invested consistently over 20 years, could grow to nearly Rs 6.4 lakh.

For him, the point was not about avoiding entertainment but about recognising what recurring spending actually costs in the long run. “It’s not about being cheap, it’s about seeing the real cost,” he noted, adding that people rarely feel financial pressure from big purchases like cars, but tend to ignore the slow drain caused by small auto-debits.

Breakdown of OTT platforms

He explained how most households today subscribe to multiple platforms at once. A typical setup, he said, often includes Netflix Standard at Rs 499 per month, Amazon Prime at Rs 1,499 per year, and JioHotstar Premium at another Rs 1,499 annually. Together, this already adds up to nearly Rs 9,000 a year. Add just one more music or regional streaming service, and the total easily crosses Rs 10,000 annually without much thought.

What if you invest this amount?

Kaushik then broke down what happens if this same Rs 700 per month, or Rs 8,400 per year, is invested instead. Assuming a 12 per cent annual return through an index fund, the long-term numbers become significant. Around Rs 1.6 lakh in 10 years, approximately Rs 3.5 lakh in 15 years, and close to Rs 6.9 lakh over 20 years. “You aren’t just paying a platform Rs 700 a month,” he wrote, “you are handing them the future capital you could have used to build real assets.”

He also pointed to industry data to show how deeply streaming services have entered Indian households. He further quoted reports from Ormax and FICCI EY suggest India has crossed 143 million paid OTT subscriptions, highlighting how rapidly the ecosystem has expanded.


According to Kaushik, this growth is not accidental. He explained that platforms rely heavily on recurring billing models because user churn is high, often between 30 and 40 per cent. Many users subscribe to a show, then cancel, which pushes companies to design pricing structures that encourage longer commitments or passive renewals. He argued that this system is built to make people stay subscribed even when they are not actively using the service. The financial impact, he suggested, is only one side of the story. The behavioural impact may be even bigger.

Behavioural impact of OTT

Once users subscribe to multiple platforms, they often feel obligated to extract value from each one, even if they do not have the time or interest to do so. This leads to what he described as spending money on content they do not need, while also losing time and focus. Kaushik urged people to approach personal finance with a more disciplined mindset, almost like running a business.

One active OTT platform

He suggested keeping only one active streaming app at a time, cancelling others before switching. He also recommended avoiding fully automated credit card payments for subscriptions, saying that manual payments force people to reassess whether they truly need the service.

30-day audit

Another suggestion was a simple 30-day audit of bank statements to identify unused subscriptions and cancel them immediately. At the same time, he made it clear that entertainment is not the problem. The issue, according to him, is unconscious spending. “Wealth isn’t built by hitting jackpot returns,” he wrote, “it’s built by cutting off the micro leaks you don’t notice.”

His message ultimately framed a simple idea: financial growth is not only about earning more or investing aggressively, but also about paying attention to the small, repeated expenses that quietly shape long-term outcomes.