Monthly Bill Fatigue

Satellite radio. Cell phone. High-speed Internet service. Matt Botwin, a Washington consultant, has it all -- and the bills that go with his growing bundle of technology. ¶ With each new service, more of Botwin's monthly income is spoken for. A generation ago, mortgages, utilities and newspaper subscriptions made up a short list of payments due each month. Now Americans pay an average of 12 bills a month, including fees for a broad range of services such as television programming, home security-system monitoring and online gaming Web sites. And each individual bill may increase as consumers add incremental improvements such as Internet access to their cell phones and premium channels to their satellite radio service. ... Link: washingtonpost.com.  Thanks to Stephen Hill for the tip. --Dennis