These days I avoid upfront payments unless you come out ahead within a year. I don't want to buy something that takes 5 years to be cheaper than the yearly paym

These days I avoid upfront payments unless you come out ahead within a year. I don't want to buy something that takes 5 years to be cheaper than the yearly payments. I have no idea if I'm going to want this thing for x years, most of the time I don't end up getting good value from upfront payments. With subscriptions I can just cancel and move to the best option at the time.