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Buy Yourself a Latte

ritholtz.com

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Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#251

Post by munk-a »

jimbokun wrote: post #227
DoreenMichele wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that $5 a day adds up The article isn't advocating that you buy a coffee every single day. It's saying a. focus on larger issues and b. it's okay to do a little self care and a little self indulgence. I sometimes bought myself a fucking coffee of some sort at Starbuck's back when I was homeless. I needed the caffeine to help treat health issues. It let me plug in for an hour and get some electricity for my tablet, pl…

"The article isn't advocating that you buy a coffee every single day." That is EXACTLY what the article is advocating, very explicitly. Your case sounds very different than the "$5 latte a day habit", which is probably just someone standing in line in the morning, grabbing their coffee and absent-mindedly sipping it as they walk to the office. You got an hour of shelter and a comfortable place to sit in a nice enviro…

This article is terribly misleading and, honestly, makes me wonder if it's just some BS starbucks guerilla marketing. I agree that having an occasional treat is great - the latte a day habit is an addiction it stops being a treat.

The article fails because it uses terminology to positively frame it as a treat while using terminology to include the negative framing when describing what you can do... it is terribly written.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#252

Post by 0x445442 »

codr7 wrote: post #186

I grew up in a poor family, could never afford anything unless miracles happened, never went on any trips etc. I later scaled all the way up to much more than I needed as a software developer and lately I'm pretty much down to nothing. The main thing I learned over 42 years of going back and forth is that a warm place to sleep, good health, good food (and coffee) and nice, caring people are priceless. Money is the ul…

Having grown up in similar circumstances I've turned out to be a big saver. Not in hopes of a lavish retirement but to not think twice when one of our cars needs new tires or one of my kids needs braces.

To me those types of things would be the motivator for most middle class folks to avoid Starbucks every day.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#253

Post by codr7 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #219
codr7 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life has a funny way of pulling the rug just to prove you wrong when it comes to security. You are not your bank account.

Money buys options. Options are freedom. A bank account isn’t your self worth, but it is an extension of your reach. Sometimes that reach is necessary, crucial even.

The options that are for sale are distractions, lessons maybe; they always end up making you miserable and less free.

Freedom is a mindset, not 500 TV channels; it's a lack of lack, not more crap.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#254

Post by codr7 »

pdpi wrote: post #223
codr7 wrote: post #186

I grew up in a poor family, could never afford anything unless miracles happened, never went on any trips etc. I later scaled all the way up to much more than I needed as a software developer and lately I'm pretty much down to nothing. The main thing I learned over 42 years of going back and forth is that a warm place to sleep, good health, good food (and coffee) and nice, caring people are priceless. Money is the ul…

> Dropping $5 you don't have on overpriced coffee is proving that it has no power over you. Surely spending money you don't have on overpriced things you don't need is _precisely_ the sort of consumerism that proves you're fully bought into the rat race?

No, that would be pretending that saving $5 could make any kind of difference.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#255

Post by toomuchtodo »

codr7 wrote: post #253
toomuchtodo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money buys options. Options are freedom. A bank account isn’t your self worth, but it is an extension of your reach. Sometimes that reach is necessary, crucial even.

The options that are for sale are distractions, lessons maybe; they always end up making you miserable and less free. Freedom is a mindset, not 500 TV channels; it's a lack of lack, not more crap.

Options like quitting a job you don’t enjoy, supporting your parent because the ACA doesn’t cover enough of their healthcare costs, or paying for IVF so your partner could have a child they otherwise couldn’t are not distractions. We’re not talking cable TV, smart phones, or fancy coffee.

Mindset isn’t a silver bullet (although it’s helpful and will keep you sane). Sometimes you’re going to need dig deep for that grit and find those dollars you need.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#256

Post by markdown »

failrate wrote: post #132
esotericn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. $5 a day is a significant amount of money to a huge number of people. In the UK, if you're on minimum wage, a 3 quid coffee represents approximately 5% of your daily income. If such an individual (someone who earned minwage for a lifetime) were to end up with even "merely" 100K in today's money at age 60 that would actually be an enormous amount relative to their cohort.

If someone has that marginal an income, they will never even begin to start a savings plan, nor will that money survive to retirement. It will be gobbled up by the first medical or vehicular emergency that comes up.

He/she is talking about the UK, where the burden of healthcare costs are shared by all taxpayers and there are no nasty surprises after a visit to the emergency room.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#257

Post by m0zg »

I prefer $0.50 lattes that I make at home with my Rancilio Silvia that I bought nearly 5 years ago. At 4 double shot lattes/americanos between myself and my wife, the machine has paid for itself many, many times over. We use $4.99 medium roast beans from Trader Joe's and regular non-organic milk or half&half. Best of all, over the first month or so I dialed in my grind and brewing technique so well, that it's better than what you'd get at a normal coffee shop. I pity the fool who pays $5 for essentially a glass of hot water.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#258

Post by BenMorganIO »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #112
ineedasername wrote: post #46

If 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…

that $5 a day adds up The article isn't advocating that you buy a coffee every single day. It's saying a. focus on larger issues and b. it's okay to do a little self care and a little self indulgence. I sometimes bought myself a fucking coffee of some sort at Starbuck's back when I was homeless. I needed the caffeine to help treat health issues. It let me plug in for an hour and get some electricity for my tablet, pl…

Yeah... I did that too when I was homeless. More with Tim's though instead of Starbucks when I got my PNA; now BNA.

Although, when I look back, it would have been smarter not to have done that. I did manage to save $600 when receiving $30 a week though.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#259

Post by DoreenMichele »

isoskeles wrote: post #246
DoreenMichele wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that $5 a day adds up The article isn't advocating that you buy a coffee every single day. It's saying a. focus on larger issues and b. it's okay to do a little self care and a little self indulgence. I sometimes bought myself a fucking coffee of some sort at Starbuck's back when I was homeless. I needed the caffeine to help treat health issues. It let me plug in for an hour and get some electricity for my tablet, pl…

It's saying focus on issues mostly out of your control ( inflation ). I'd prefer to focus on the things that are in my control. I agree that some level of indulgence is okay, obviously this is a balance. Everyone has to figure out what they're comfortable with here, but some people we know may have become way too comfortable and complacent yet still want to complain about their financial situation. These are the peop…

When I was homeless and going to Starbucks, I used to watch people get $60 worth of takeout coffee on a Saturday morning. Family was coming over. Everyone needed a cup.

But no one tells well-off people to cut back on buying $5 cups of coffee by the dozen. No one suggests that if they saved that money, they could have two or three million more and, clearly, that's the morally correct thing to do.

No one is saying coffee consumption is the root cause of terrorist attacks and calling for coffee abolition. No one is saying coffee is generally some kind of moral failing.

It's apparently just a moral failing if you are struggling financially. And then you really need to quit it, you bad person you.

This whole "Your coffee is the problem!" narrative is just judgy, moralizing nonsense. Why is it focused on expensive coffee in specific? Why not candy bars on your work break? Or the high cost of participating in the annual insanity we call Christmas?

Because expensive coffee bought and consumed publicly is conspicuous consumption, something that is a pecking order signal of being one of The Haves. So The Haves are offended by The Have Nots participating.

That's part of what this article is criticizing.

Let The Have Nots have a small luxury here and there and quit picking on them over it. Geez.

Personally, I mostly stopped doing Christmas (and Halloween) years ago. It's not obvious because I'm so fucking poor that no one expects me to buy them presents.

But if you want to start a campaign to tell America that our modern Christmas habits are one of the roots of all financial evil in the world, I will happily promote your campaign. I'm sure you will be pelted with rotten tomatoes, because now you are also being judgy of the spending habits of The Haves, but I will support your right to subject yourself to that.

Re: Buy Yourself a Latte

#260

Post by ryandrake »

falcolas wrote: post #126
antisthenes wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. True, but that's a very deep rabbit hole. We could sit here all day debating what's luxury and what's not. My counterargument would be that if with automation the way it is, if a regular person can't afford a self-made cup of coffee (or an equivalently cheap luxury…

The argument is not that luxuries shouldn't be purchased (they should). In the parent's comment, they put down a latte as a luxury item while upholding their brewed coffee as a better purchase. This was simply an effort to rebut that statement.

I think it’s the delivery method and cost that makes it a luxury, not necessarily the product. A fish bought at the grocery store for $5, cooked at home and served in your kitchen is just food. That exact same fish served in a sit-down restaurant for $35 is a luxury.
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