Buy Yourself a Latte

While a great coffee can be a pleasurable experience that can actually make you more productive and happy in the short-run with possible positive long-term flow-trough effects (e.g., on life satisfaction), there are likely going to be more impactful uses of that money. As the most obvious examples, for instance, saving childrens lifes in Africa [givewell.org], improving the messy factory farming situation [gfi.org], etc. So wouldn’t you have the moral imperative to spend that money in a way that it’s impact is higher or at least comparable than those possible alternatives?

I would argue that in many cases this is actually possible when you are buying a coffee but not regularly, though... then you could likely find more effective alternatives, thus, the habbit would be obviously harder to justify for the vast majority of people.

My major quip with all of this is that our institutions could be designed in a way that would help us to make smart decisions (for us and others) but at the moment it is computationally really expensive to find a good path that balances all interests in way that leads to a great life for all.

So there is really no point to complaining, just aim for a frugal life style because no matter how good or bad the system is this will give you, individually, the best results.

Buying overpriced stuff you don't really need with money you don't have has to be somewhere in the definition of "money has power over me". For me, to be truly independent means to not need money a) because you have enough and b) because you don't need to compulsively spend it. b) leads to a) btw.

Met him in 2014, and in 2017 he had a panic when he was kicked out of his house. He came over for a moment and asked for any spare change, gave him ~5-10$.

I was eating raw ramen and protein shakes, always cooked at home. Saved like crazy(and worked). No college debt. Graduated, life is good.

5$/day is enough to pay for many months of rent.

>pretending that saving $5 could make any kind of difference.

This is the difference between the wealthy and poor. The poor can't visualize that 5$/day-> thousands of dollars.

Impoverished people might be poor because they take everything literally and can't see the big picture though. Yes, frivolous spending absolutely has something to do with poverty. It's so clear and obvious and when I look at every example of a person that I know that could be called poor vs someone that is rich there is the same pattern: The poor ones HATE doing what's necessary, work, personal grooming, cleaning, eating healthy, working out whatever but they LOVE spending money they don't have on things they don't need and that will not make them happy. If you try to stop them from spending, they suffer. But if they spend it's the hedonistic treadmill: increase amount and GOTO 10.

Rich people I know LOVE to work. They would work for free. They get up and go work and if you stop them they suffer. The rich people I know HATE spending money. It causes them physical discomfort. IF they spend, they consider it for quite some time, look for deals or wait for special offers. Subsequently they are very happy with their purchases and keep them maintained and in good order.

> They're poor because there's an economic system currently in place which is slurping as much wealth away from as many people as possible to feed it to just a few.

None of this is true. We are getting wealthier and wealthier from this magnificent system that lifted BILLIONS out of poverty the last 50 years.

> small pleasures

This is a perfect example of the poverty mindset: consume to be happy. There is enough pleasure to be had without spending a single dime, in fact, the most fulfilling activities will net you money directly or indirectly. It's possible to be content without spending money all the time. If you think that the happiness in your life comes down to small or large purchases you are already on the wrong path. Just turn back.

And by the way, the story of lotto winners is instructive: you simply can't spend your way out of the poverty mindset.