Two Percent is going up one dollar. Here's the story.
For the first time ever, the price of a Two Percent Membership is going up by $1. Current Members are NOT affected. Not a Member yet? Lock-in our legacy pricing, forever, here.
I’ve never raised the price of this newsletter.
Since launching in May of 2023, Two Percent has cost $6.87 a month or $68.70 a year. Which raises an obvious question: Why $6.87? What kind of weird price is that?
I blame caffeine.
When I was launching Two Percent, I wasn’t sure what to charge. Some people on Substack charged $5 a month. Others $50. Most were charging around $10.
I was weighing this while getting a giant cold brew at my favorite coffee spot in Las Vegas. “That’ll be $6.87,” the barista said.
I looked at that drink and asked myself: Can I provide more value to readers across a month than this cold brew? Definitely.
So $6.87 it was. And $6.87 it has stayed.
But a lot has happened since then.
Two Percent Members have collectively lost thousands of pounds. Not short-term, fad-diet swings. More like fundamental changes in how they approach food, movement, and health.
If you want to put a number on that: $18,000 to $36,000. That’s how much the average person saves over a lifetime by dropping to a healthy weight, according to scientists at Johns Hopkins. For those who lost weight by reading Two Percent, that’s not a bad return on $6.87 a month.
Many Members said the Gear Not Stuff series and my writing on the Scarcity Loop saved them a lot of money (as well as clutter and frustration).
Many started rucking for the first time and stuck with it. Research suggests that habit alone could add years to your life and make you more useful across those years. Others fixed nagging injuries and were able to do the things they love again.
We’ve gone deep on practices that work: how to exercise in the time you have, how to think about death, boredom, and discomfort in ways that make you better at being alive.
I’ve traveled to the Arctic tundra, Iraq, hunter-gatherer camps in Bolivia, and cutting-edge labs around the world to learn stuff and write about it here.
We’ve done AMAs, single-topic deep dives, expert conversations, Burn the Ships workouts, audio versions, and nearly a thousand posts that had me poring over studies, calling experts, and spending way too much time to get everything right. (Just ask Leah. She’s woken up to me writing the last 1,278 mornings since this project began.)
I sent a survey to everyone last month. Here’s what our paying Members told me:
49% changed in a way that improved their life.
52% had a mindset shift that helped them.
25% of them moved more in real life (walking/steps/stairs/rucking/outdoors).
18% of them said health stuff no longer felt like a hassle. It became automatic.
This newsletter is the thing I’m most proud of building.
Which brings me to the news.
A few months ago, I was at that same coffee shop and ordered the same irresponsibly large cold brew. “That’ll be $9.11,” the barista said. Two things:
Yes, inflation is a pain and a reality.
No, we’re not going that crazy.
Starting May 1st, the price of a Two Percent Membership is moving from $6.87/month ($68.70/year) to $7.87/month ($78.70/year).
BIG NOTE: If you’re already a Member, this increase does not apply to you. You’re grandfathered into the original pricing.
You got in early. Your price stays at $6.87/month or $68.70/year—forever. Your price won’t change so long as you maintain a membership.
To be completely clear about what this means:
If you never cancel or change your paid Membership, your price stays the same always ($6.87/mo or $68.70/year).
If you cancel your Membership and later rejoin, you’ll pay the new price.
If you switch Membership plans after May 1—for example, from monthly to annual or annual to monthly—Substack treats that as a new subscription, and you’ll be moved to the new price. Unfortunately, that’s a Substack quirk I can’t control.
The upshot: If you’re currently on the monthly plan and think you may want to switch to the annual plan, it makes sense to switch before May 1. That lets you lock in the current annual price, get two months free, and avoid paying the higher annual price later.
How to switch to annual: Go to your Two Percent account settings here. Under Subscription, click Change. Then click the annual option, and click Change Plan to save.
If you’re not yet a Member, but you join us before May 1st, you lock in $6.87/month or $68.70/year forever. That price never changes for you so long as you maintain your membership, even if we raise prices again in another three years.
So, yes, a one-dollar increase. The .87 lives on, because some traditions are too dumb to die. (Consider this a restrained response to the economic conditions.)
We’re pursuing a lot of big new projects:
A major new series I’ve been working on since the summer. I can’t say much except that it’s going to be f*cking awesome. It’s dropping in early April.
More conversations with experts doing the most interesting and practical work in health, mindset, and performance.
New workout programming built with experts I trust.
A ramped-up schedule and posts based on your feedback in the survey.
Audio versions of everything for those of you who like to consume this stuff while rucking, cooking, or pretending to work.
And, of course, I’ll keep doing anything you think will help you. My email is: m@twopct.com. Send ideas anytime.
The goal of Two Percent hasn’t changed. We’re still finding the most useful, practical, and interesting ideas in health and performance—the stuff that actually works for real people in the real world.
We’re still delivering it to you in a way that you can use right after reading. That is and always will be the tense of living we’re after.
If you’ve been thinking about becoming a Member, now is the time. Between now and May 1st, you can lock in the current $6.87/month ($68.70/year) rate permanently. After May 1st, it goes to $7.87/month or $78.70/year.
So if you’ve been on the fence, lock it in now, and the price never changes for you.
Have fun, don’t die, thanks for being here,
–Michael