or you could blow your ten year latte budge on a bigger fancier car. but nobody talks about having to drive a budget compact vehicle to become a millionaire.
so puhlease.
Buy Yourself a Latte
91–100 of 351 posts
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#92A lot of comments here are debating whether a 12% interest rate is reasonable or not - I don't know enough to comment on that since stocks and investing is one of those things I try to know as little about as possible.
What I'm interested in is where the promoters of "save for 40 years" are getting a guarantee that they'll be alive in 40 years, and in good enough health to do the things they planned to do when they started investing. Especially if you live in a third-world country like the US, where mass shootings happen nearly every week, and regular medical expenses can bankrupt even the most thrifty saver, I think there's something to be said for enjoying life right now. I'm very thankful for the trips I've spent money on instead of saving it, because exposure to different cultures changed me as a person, and now I have the rest of my life to live differently with new ideas and values.
If you like coffee, $4 or $5 can get you literally the best coffee beans in the world, prepared by a master barista. It's not like wine or whiskey where you need to spend hundreds of dollars to get a taste of the high-end stuff. I still make my coffee at home 6 days a week because it's cheap and I like the process, but getting an espresso once a week is one of those little joys that make life worth living for me.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Prep, brewing, and cleanup amounts can work up to around $3-4 of opportunity cost for a tech professional. I disagree. The average tech professional is salaried, not billing hourly. It takes about the same amount of time to fill and plug in the percolator or operate a kurig as it does to stand in line and get coffee made for you. Likewise the opportunity cost is nearly $0 There is no economic rationalization for the…
Salaried vs hourly doesn't matter that much when looking at opportunity costs. Most salaried folks stick to a fixed set of working hours. > It is a pure luxury expense. Practically speaking, purchasing coffee at all is a luxury line item. There's no actual need for it for anything other than the caffeine hit and flavor. At least with a Latte, there's the protein, calcium and calories from the milk.
>Most salaried folks stick to a fixed set of working hours.
We also browse internet, spend ungodly amount of time on fb/insta/whatsapp/HN/reddit while at work. Taking out 5 mins to make a coffee isn't that significant.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#94If part of your audience consists of people living without much a safety net, that $5 a day adds up. Also, the author's point that saving that much isn't going to be $1 million, but "only" as much as $500,000 then that point rather falls flat. Sure, inflation may decrease the utility of that amount of money, but it will also increase the cost of that latte, so you'll be saving more than just the $5 over time. Finally…
I read this very differently -- if $5/day makes up a significant portion of your safety net spending, then you have much larger problems than the $5 delta your latte is causing. It's not that $5/day doesn't matter to anyone, it's that the people for whom it matters are facing much larger systemic issues that we're ignoring while shaming people for the smallest of luxuries. edit: missing word
If you are 20 years old and you start putting away $5/day and have 500k in the bank at 60. Who can argue with that. In fact they should pass a law to make this mandatory on everyone. It would greatly improve the lives of literally everyone.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#95If part of your audience consists of people living without much a safety net, that $5 a day adds up. Also, the author's point that saving that much isn't going to be $1 million, but "only" as much as $500,000 then that point rather falls flat. Sure, inflation may decrease the utility of that amount of money, but it will also increase the cost of that latte, so you'll be saving more than just the $5 over time. Finally…
I read this very differently -- if $5/day makes up a significant portion of your safety net spending, then you have much larger problems than the $5 delta your latte is causing. It's not that $5/day doesn't matter to anyone, it's that the people for whom it matters are facing much larger systemic issues that we're ignoring while shaming people for the smallest of luxuries. edit: missing word
I agree with your interpretation.
With apologies to Helder Câmara - "When I tell the poor to save money on a latte they call me a saint, when I ask why the poor cannot afford a latte they call me a Communist."
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#96If part of your audience consists of people living without much a safety net, that $5 a day adds up. Also, the author's point that saving that much isn't going to be $1 million, but "only" as much as $500,000 then that point rather falls flat. Sure, inflation may decrease the utility of that amount of money, but it will also increase the cost of that latte, so you'll be saving more than just the $5 over time. Finally…
I agree wholeheartedly. I expect much of her audience is carrying credit card debt at 25% -- if you can change your subconscious habits to save $1000/year you stand a much better chance of getting back above water.
Redo the calculations from a perspective of 20%+ interest, occasional late fees, the impact on your credit score & your mental health, and now skipping a latte makes a lot more sense.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#97When I was younger I walked to work in the big city and there was a great coffee shop on the way and every single day I bought a $4 extra large soy chai latte. It was fantastic and an exclusive secret recipe to that non-chain shop. Back then a normal coffee cost $1, so this was a splurge. Inflation adjusted that would be $6-7 these days. I regret nothing, though I did feel uncomfortable sometimes spending so much.
My next job there was no comparable coffee shop and I was driving to work. So I reconstructed by experimenting with spices until I exactly duplicated the original. Then I made the base in batches and would have some all week long, a week's worth was $3 in fairly pricey spices in bulk and $3 in soy, so $1.20 a day.
I later dropped soy from my diet and got more interested in espresso, cappuccino and cafe au lait with various non-dairy non-soy whiteners. By this time I had a $30 espresso machine and a grinder. I've replaced both a couple times. Sometimes I try a commercial coffee, but my own is better. And I'm OK with one big coffee a day, more than that I get too wired and can't think as well. Cost now is around 50 cents a day including everything such as prorated equipment costs.
$5 lattes from a store every day is fine if you can afford it. But it does add up. And some folks that buy such things also treat themselves to lots of other things that they don't prepare themselves, whether avocado toast, movies, cable TV, delivered water, on demand fashion, always having the very latest iPhone, car leasing, or whatever.
Being aware of these costs and keeping track of them can help. If one is not investing well for retirement then they should start looking at all these little expenses, not just the big expenses.
I'm very well off now and can afford to buy all the $5 lattes I want but I don't buy any lattes at all these days. When I was poor I bought a lot of them. There's not really a connection between the two but there could be for some.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read this very differently -- if $5/day makes up a significant portion of your safety net spending, then you have much larger problems than the $5 delta your latte is causing. It's not that $5/day doesn't matter to anyone, it's that the people for whom it matters are facing much larger systemic issues that we're ignoring while shaming people for the smallest of luxuries. edit: missing word
If you are 20 years old and you start putting away $5/day and have 500k in the bank at 60. Who can argue with that. In fact they should pass a law to make this mandatory on everyone. It would greatly improve the lives of literally everyone.
If you’re not free to spend the money in the bank then you don’t really own it.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#99A lot of comments here are debating whether a 12% interest rate is reasonable or not - I don't know enough to comment on that since stocks and investing is one of those things I try to know as little about as possible. What I'm interested in is where the promoters of "save for 40 years" are getting a guarantee that they'll be alive in 40 years, and in good enough health to do the things they planned to do when they s…
It's very simple. Despite the weekly mass shootings in your neighborhood, the life expectancy of an American is still 79 years. And if you're commenting on Hacker News, chances are that yours will be higher. And the majority of American don't get bankrupt on medical expenses.
Unless you're willing to live in poverty, or be a burden on your children, saving enough for your old age is your only option.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't splurge on the fantastic lattes of your master barista.
Re: Buy Yourself a Latte
#100If part of your audience consists of people living without much a safety net, that $5 a day adds up. Also, the author's point that saving that much isn't going to be $1 million, but "only" as much as $500,000 then that point rather falls flat. Sure, inflation may decrease the utility of that amount of money, but it will also increase the cost of that latte, so you'll be saving more than just the $5 over time. Finally…
The point is to focus on the big wins. Save $1000 next time your buy a car and that covers almost a year of $5 lattes every weekday morning.
If you overpay on your next car, or negotiate badly on your next job offer, the money you saved by not buying lattes was all for nothing.
In other words, major financial decisions vastly outweigh the impact of a daily $5 purchase, so why focus on the small stuff? Yet much financial advice is about the small stuff, and this author is saying that's not a good approach.