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My Half-Million Dollar Coffee Habit
October 28, 2009 Fun Facts

If I spend roughly $3 per day on coffee over a 50 year period, I am implicitly valuing coffee drinking by at least $500,000. I probably get even more satisfaction than that. And that is just on coffee. Imagine the value I get from living in a safe, comfortable home, or driving my car.

Why do I say this? Because even for people of extremely modest income, accumulating a large retirement nest egg through small amounts of savings is not a mere possibility, but almost a certainty. Remember that the next time someone tells you that only the government can provide for retirement security. Even someone earning the minumum wage for a full-time job earns $14,300 per year. Saving less than 10% of that each year could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings over the course of a lifetime.

In tomorrow’s article I will explain how to think about this more carefully.

"2" Comments
  1. How selfish of you! Imagine how much good Barney Frank and Chris Dodd could do with your coffee money! 😉

  2. Speedmaster is one wry cynic, imagining what Chris and Barney might do.

    This is mighty advice, Wintercow. I hope your students heed it.

    Let us all strive to preserve freedom.

    Let us all also hope that the million-dollar bill, with Geithner’s visage, does not become pocket change.

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