>Paying $10-20/mo for a fridge is not going to significantly impact retirement savings over the long term. First, your numbers are way too low. Nobody is going

>Paying $10-20/mo for a fridge is not going to significantly impact retirement savings over the long term. First, your numbers are way too low. Nobody is going to lease you, for example, a $2500 fridge where the capital cost will take 20 years to be paid back, especially since cost of service, depreciation of asset, and profit, needs to be priced in as well. You'd be looking at something on the order of $50/mo. The opportunity cost of putting $50/mo into a tax sheltered investment account (with a reasonable 6% return) is around $15,000 after 15 years. In other words, you paid $15k for a fridge that retails for $2500. > The alternative is putting that little bit extra into savings every month to buy the next fridge when it breaks. It balances out. Huh? If you're overpaying for an appliance, you don't really 'fix that' by saving more.