In the area of personal finance, I am an atypical blogger. I have always had an emergency fund and I have never had any student debt (I went to college on an ROTC scholarship). I have also always paid off my credit cards in full every month. I've read enough PF blogs to know that makes me a little unusual. I also suspect I'm longer in the tooth the the average blogger.
I 'fess up about these things because I'm about to go against the grain of most PF bloggers.
I love going to Starbucks. I'll go in, check out the newest CD's, order a tall latte. Sometimes I banter a bit with the staff, who usually seem to be in a pretty good mood. When my coffee comes, I sit in the padded chairs and lounge around sipping while I listen to jazz and read the New York Times. It's a wonderful experience. For half an hour I feel like a hip, upper-class urbanite.
The prevailing wisdom is that buying expensive coffee is a waste of money. David Bach of "The Automatic Millionare" fame calls it the Latte Factor: stop buying lattes and use the money you spend to fund your 401K. I understand the need to get out of debt and prepare for retirement, really I do. But you should not put off living until retirement.
The beauty of the near luxury experience is that for a few dollars you can feel like a million bucks, even if you don't have a million bucks. The key is to strike that balance between preparing for an uncertain future and enjoying the present.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I wonder, if I put the price of a Starbucks Latte in a piggy bank every weekday, deposit that sum in savings, say, every month, where will I be?
Interesting theory no?
Regardless, drink your latte man! It is your right to have all that frothy yumminess. It's in the constitution somewhere, surely.
Post a Comment