re: Why do old people go to the default argument of $6 coffee when talking about affordability

I don’t. I don’t care what you spend your money on. I also don’t care about your money problems.

Think of how much you can actually save (not spend less on but actually put into a fricking bank account drawing interest or once you're beyond emergency fund savings, into a private brokerage on high growth ETFs) if you don't buy the following:

Coffee -- make your own in the morning. save $150-200 a month

Eating out for lunch (keep it to once a week or two or never?). It is possible to bring your own lunch to work/school! save $300+ a month

Using cash to buy a car instead of making payments on a new one ... once past the purchase, you won't have $400/month payments plus full coverage insurance -- you can generally save around $200/month ... plus probably around $400/year on tag. This puts $1000/month back into your savings.

Imagine if you freed up close $1500 a month here and invested it (after funding your emergency account: 6 months of expenses).

Holy shite, that comes to $18k per year you could be investing.

Let's just say you're a dumbass and dont fund 401k or IRAs but just that. From the time you're 30 until 65, at a shitty 10% compounding interest rate, you'll have $4,878,438.63.

Still want to blame others for your money problems?

People that buy 7 dollar coffee aren’t buying it once… 7 bucks isn’t a lot of money, but multiply that by several or more days a week times most weeks of the year.

I only know two kinds of people- those for whom takeout coffee is a frequent thing and those that never do it.

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Alcohol was a regular expense for a lot of boomers

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Bad analogy. It's not an either/or choice. Young people can buy Starbucks and still spend money on alcohol. But the Starbucks is just an example of a world of frivolous spending. Getting hung up on that one item is dumb.

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Because it's a wasteful expense.

So spending money back in the day on gallons of alcohol wasn't?

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No, but having it DoorDashed to your lazy azz for an additional $38 while you play vid games is.

Really, everyone should be asking them where they are spending their money. People complain about affordability as they are forking out 60-70.00 for a lunch for 2-3, or as they eat out 4-5 times a week for dinner. They complain as they order 40-60.00 bucks worth of food or grocery from doordash and uber.

People have gotten so used to paying electronically they don't see it as real money leaving their hands. Mindless spending but complain about cost of goods and services they don't really need. If a tank of gas makes you protest then you shouldn't be buying a 6.00 cup of coffee. None of us should be.

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Why do old people go to the default argument of $6 coffee when talking about affordability

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Because it’s an example of how younger than boomers waste money.

It’s not the only thing holding them back from a secure financial future. It’s one of hundreds of ways they blow money needlessly.

It’s an indicator of bad decision making. If you don’t have a lot of money, you shouldn’t be spending a lot of money on things you don’t NEED (expensive coffee, extra clothes and shoes, going out a lot, door dash, etc.)

You can buy a 10-15 dollar bag of coffee and have it last over a month. That would indicate self aware, smart decision making.

Extrapolate the coffee example out across the board and it begins to make cents…

Good advice. For most people, its the micro purchases like eating out, starbucks, bottled water, energy drinks, streaming apps, etc... each in itself a seemingly low cost indulgence, but over time becomes a massive financial burden. Vacations are another vice that people can't seem to make good decisions around. MFer's are talking multiple vacations per year now.

On the flip side, people are too aggressive with credit. Making 30 year mortgages in your 40's is probably not the best idea. 7 year car notes, student loans, all kill people's ability to get financially stable long term. It creates a cash flow crisis that ends up fattening up a credit card balance somewhere and compromising the ability to save. You don't need a 5000 square foot house and a 90K vehicle America.