Saruman wasn’t supposed to be a role model, true. But neither was the guy complaining about rising prices from his couch while the free market delivered infinite content on demand.

I can hate the game and offer advice on how to play at the same time.

Don't bother, this is terrible advice. The idea I guess being "if you bought some of their stock each month, it's gone up enough that if you sold it at some point, it would cover the subscription".

As if that's a thing people can know ahead of time and use for decision-making. The only people who try to do stuff like this routinely get fleeced by "the market". Random average consumers are not out here using stocks to their advantage in this way, it's not a thing.

It's very similar to saying "if you just throw X dollars into a casino every month, Y thing becomes free!" - no, no it doesn't lmao. It could, maybe, but of course it never does cuz that's not what a casino is for, it's for other people to profit, not you. Stock market is surprisingly similar.

By investing some extra money with them, you’re owning a piece of the company.

If/when the company goes up in value, your shares in the company are worth more. The inverse is true as well.

If you’re in the US, check out brokers like Charles Schwab or robinhood. You don’t have to have thousands of dollars to get started.