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> It's arguing against the people saying "Your daily coffee habit is costing you a million dollars!" It's saying that is nonsense. Hopefully nobody is saying t

> It's arguing against the people saying "Your daily coffee habit is costing you a million dollars!" It's saying that is nonsense. Hopefully nobody is saying that. A $5 daily habit costs $20-30k per decade, after you factor in reasonably anticipated investment gains. No more no less. Viewpoints about what an ideal world would look like, or one's right to make such purchases, or whatever else, have zero impact on the cost. It is what it is. Each person has to make their own judgment about whether that cost makes sense for them.

DoreenMichele 8y ago
From the article: It’s a cliché that refuses to die: personal finance guru Suzy Orman warned investors last week that if you “waste money on coffee, it’s like ‘peeing $1 million down the drain.’” That's apparently the reason the article was written -- to rebut that claim in specific.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 8y ago
  Fair enough. It looks like Suze really believes a latte will add up to $1M. She's a blowhard, and wrong -- although I think it's fair to say it'll cost well over $100k over that period, which is not insignificant. Most people who say to skip the $5 a day latte understand that that alone isn't going to make you rich. Instead, the point is to engage in good spending habits, the sum of which will make you at least substantially wealthier than you would be otherwise. The fact that Suze took it literally does not mean the advice needs dismantling. Quite the opposite. That being said, I do think it's kind of interesting that this guy is writing about don't buy a latte. Buy as many lattes as you want, as long as you don't hire his firm. They'll hit you up for 1% of your AUM under $2M, which is going to hurt a lot more than lattes for anybody who still gives any thought to the price of one.
roenxi 8y ago
The better way of looking at it is that a coffee will cost about $5/per (I dunno, I don't drink coffee) and the median male full time weekly earnings are somewhere around $900/wk in America. So 5 coffees a week is ~2.7% of a full time wage. That is huge, anyone arguing otherwise isn't all over how percentages work. Only something like 10-15% of your average weekly wage needs to be saved to have a comfortable retirement. Reducing consumption is a double-whammy, you spend less on lifestyle so you need to save less to maintain that lifestyle. $5/day is a huge expense from that perspective. I don't know how prevalent stupid decisions like a daily coffee are for poor people, but the costs are so high I expect not many of them do it. Having a stranger prepare your food and drink is a luxury for the wealthy.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

From the article: It’s a cliché that refuses to die: personal finance guru Suzy Orman warned investors last week that if you “waste money on coffee, it’s like ‘peeing $1 million down the drain.’” That's apparently the reason the article was written -- to rebut that claim in specific.

asdfasgasdgasdg 8y ago
Fair enough. It looks like Suze really believes a latte will add up to $1M. She's a blowhard, and wrong -- although I think it's fair to say it'll cost well over $100k over that period, which is not insignificant. Most people who say to skip the $5 a day latte understand that that alone isn't going to make you rich. Instead, the point is to engage in good spending habits, the sum of which will make you at least substantially wealthier than you would be otherwise. The fact that Suze took it literally does not mean the advice needs dismantling. Quite the opposite. That being said, I do think it's kind of interesting that this guy is writing about don't buy a latte. Buy as many lattes as you want, as long as you don't hire his firm. They'll hit you up for 1% of your AUM under $2M, which is going to hurt a lot more than lattes for anybody who still gives any thought to the price of one.

roenxi 8y ago

The better way of looking at it is that a coffee will cost about $5/per (I dunno, I don't drink coffee) and the median male full time weekly earnings are somewhere around $900/wk in America. So 5 coffees a week is ~2.7% of a full time wage. That is huge, anyone arguing otherwise isn't all over how percentages work. Only something like 10-15% of your average weekly wage needs to be saved to have a comfortable retirement. Reducing consumption is a double-whammy, you spend less on lifestyle so you need to save less to maintain that lifestyle. $5/day is a huge expense from that perspective. I don't know how prevalent stupid decisions like a daily coffee are for poor people, but the costs are so high I expect not many of them do it. Having a stranger prepare your food and drink is a luxury for the wealthy.