2026-09-09
The "Incidental Expense" — A 250-Year-Old Idea That Still Explains Your Budget
In 1758, Benjamin Franklin published an essay that's still one of the most-quoted pieces of financial writing in history. Buried in it is an idea sharper than "a penny saved is a penny earned" — and it's more relevant to a 2026 budget than almost anything written since.
The idea
Franklin's argument: people don't usually go broke from the big, obvious expense — the one they see coming and budget around. They go broke from "the incidental expense," the small charge repeated so often it stops registering as a decision at all.
He was talking about candles and small trades. Today it's a $9.99 subscription you forgot you have, a coffee that's become a reflex instead of a choice, a delivery fee you no longer notice because it's just how you order food now.
Why it's still true
The reason this idea survived 250 years isn't nostalgia — it's that the underlying psychology hasn't changed. A large, one-time expense gets scrutinized. A small, recurring one gets automated past your attention entirely, and automation is exactly what makes it invisible. You don't decide to spend it each time; you just don't decide to stop.
Find yours this week
Pick one recurring charge you haven't actually looked at in six months. Not the rent, not the big bill you already track closely — something small enough that you've stopped seeing it. Multiply it by twelve. Look at that number, not the monthly one. Franklin's whole point is that the arithmetic changes your decision once you see the real number, not the small one.
This is one idea from one 18th-century essay. If a 250-year-old three-page pamphlet can still be this useful, it's worth asking what the other nine got right too — Sun Tzu on picking fights you can win, Emerson on when to change your mind, James Allen on the thought patterns that quietly steer your actions.
Business Classics condenses ten of these — Franklin, Emerson, Sun Tzu, and more — into an afternoon, with full audio narration for each. It's part of the PerformanceOpti library: see what's inside.