So... my personal experience is that many people who make less than median household income do buy $5 lattes or similar drinks/beverages multiple times a week.

So... my personal experience is that many people who make less than median household income do buy $5 lattes or similar drinks/beverages multiple times a week. While I do not believe that this is a big retirement issue, I do think many of the people I've been acquainted with who have habits in this ballpark would be quite well-served by getting the $1-dollar-any-size regular coffees at McDonald's instead, which would amount to increased savings of about ~$1500/year. Why? I think this is, for many, more an issue of having a solid emergency fund or paying down moderate credit card debt, than making or breaking retirement savings (which would, in any case, generally come after debt/emergency funds). (Though it's still probably not make or break for most people.) The above said, which I'm kind of meh about, what I find really jaw dropping is estimating the amount that many people in all income groups spend on alcohol. I don't know how people have the money.