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$200k for a coffee and sandwich?

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I'm reading "Playing with FIRE" by Scott Rieckens. He realised he could save a 6-figure amount just by not having a sandwich and coffee on his way to work each day.


Traditionally Scott would buy an coffee and a sandwich on his way to work. It was "only" eight dollars so it seemed like an easy purchase.

Even with free coffee at work, eight dollars seemed a small price to pay with a sandwich included.

Doing the Math

Then Scott crunched the numbers. Eight dollars each workday came to $160 a month. $1,920 per year.

Continuing this habit for 30 years of work would cost him $57,600.

If he invested that $160/month instead, he would accumulate $133,161 (invested at 5%).

Translating that into Australian dollars it's $194,765.27 (to be precise).

How the little things add up

It is amazing how even little things add up if we do them a lot. $8 doesn't sound much - until he realises he's buying 7,200 coffees and 7,200 sandwiches.

Are we getting value?

This is not to say don't ever buy anything. It's about working out whether we're really getting value from our purchases.

Repeat purchases are particularly in question - for two reasons. Because we do them often, the cost really adds up (like the coffees). We also know that the longer we have something the less we enjoy it.

So how much does stuff really cost?

Good question. I developed my own little calculator for this (grab a copy).

I tried an example of a $14 lunch each workday. It came out to cost nearly quarter of a million dollars.


Download your own copy and you can try it out for different expenses, whether they occur each workday, every day, week, month or year.

I'm not picking on coffee drinkers. It might be buying clothes you don't wear, having a gym membership you never use, or cable TV that you don't need.

By finding out the true cost you can decide whether it's providing good value, or whether you'd be better off with the cash.

Further reading

See my review of Scott's book Playing with FIRE, or his movie of the same name.

For future articles why not subscribe to my monthly-ish email. It's quick way to catch up on my new articles. Get it automatically when you get the calculator, or subscribe here.
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