Posted on 02/25/2024 10:47:42 PM PST by RomanSoldier19
Starbucks is horrible. I can’t believe anyone actually enjoys it. I’d pay $6 to not have to drink it.
I quit smoking in 1981.
I quit drinking coffee in 2009.
No professional help needed, I just did it.
What I started on my own I ended on my own.
Same with my debt.
I’ve had no debt since 1992 or so.
I own 5 ocean view acres and two houses in Hawaii.
I have NO respect or concern for people bitching about how hard their life is.
Do it like I did.
Work hard and don’t waste your money on pretty stuff,
like starbucks coffee and new cars.
On the other hand the young, college-educated liberal reads the NY Time Economic opinion columnist Paul Krugman, who is a Nobel Prize winner in Economics and spouts absolute Democratic Party line nonsense about economics.
Paul has repeatedly said that the Government needs to go deeper into debt. He feels that as long as the “economy is growing” greater amounts of debt aren't a problem. He also feels that inflation is a good thing, because the US government gets to borrow money with Treasury Bonds and pay off those bonds with dollars that have less buying power. Paul has not seen a Republican economic proposal he likes nor a Democratic economic proposal he thinks is wrong.
The young person not willing to pay off debt probably has been mentored by Paul Krugman or a liberal college professor who idolized Dr. Krugman.
McDonalds use to be good. It is still drinkable but has an off taste to it now in my opinion.
I inherited my mom’s old thermos from the 70’s. It still works just fine. Get a few curious looks in the office.
Buy some beans and a mr. Coffee.
Jeez. You can have it all if you can think your way out of a paper bag.
Cheap coffee, real cream, and a $5 frother makes a great inexpensive cup of java.
I’m not sure how one goes about that, if you work on a W-2, you are paying social security taxes, if you work on a 1099, your income gets reported, and then you pay taxes.
Are you suggesting not funding a 401K plan ??
I would say a 401K is a good investment decision to make, especially if your employer has any kind of program that matches some percentage of your contributions, until you withdraw the money you control where investments are made with that money, yes you get taxed when you withdraw the money, but investments return prior to any withdrawals are not taxed.
It’s nearly impossible to avoid paying taxes on investments, the key is to delay the taxes and minimize their impact.
” young people to NOT donate to their retirement accts”
Strong disagreement.
Unlike wages, most types of retirement accounts are safe from various types of legal predation.
The best advice I have is
-Open up a brokerage account and self-managed Roth IRA.
-Put all spare and available funds into it paying the taxes up front.
-Roll that snowball using a good index fund or daytrade to build faster growth.
TMK only a ROTH IRA protects your savings and retirement.
Retirement accounts (IRAs) when self-managed can easily surpass the rate of currency debasement (inflation).
Stay ahead of Inflation. Otherwise - Doomage
Well, Ramsey’s right about the coffee. Splurge and get your own coffee maker, then get some coffee from the store. I use Keurig-compatible pods. I can get a 96-pod box of Victor Allen coffee from Big Lots — yes, they have those in Florida — for 26 dollars. That’s 96 cups of coffee up to 12 oz each, beating the hell out of Starbucks (mebbe 5 to 8 cups, depending on how you like it).
I heard a financial advisor talking about a client on a radio show. She was trying to get the client to look at expenses & figure out where they could reduce/cut some of them so they could put money in retirement accounts. The client said they just had nothing more they could ‘cut’, down to bare bones. The financial advisor said ‘let’s look at your expenses on a daily basis’.
Guess what she discovered? This couple was spending $400 per month at Starbucks!! So to answer your question as to how much on an annual basis, in this case, $4,800.
Personally, I won’t set foot in a Starbucks & I make my own very tasty coffee every morning.
Why would any self-respecting person shop at Starbucks anyway?
A cup of coffee at Waffle House is 2 dollars or so, and they’ll top it off.
You have obviously worked hard to get where you are, but Hawaii is run by Communists. Communists like to seize things, so I would recommend having a lawyer on retainer.
bfl
The epitome of Democrat policies.
“mental health”? “self care”? No. The term is “indulgence”.
Its not that the $766 is going to make you or break you. Its about lifestyle. There are lots of little things people can cut that won’t really change their quality of life but which will save a significant amount of money. For example:
- bring your own lunch/drinks if you work away from home
- learn to cook and do so. Do it regularly. Avoid dining out and ESPECIALLY avoid buying food from a restaurant and having it delivered. How lazy can you get? Besides, you can eat healthier if you cook for yourself. Pasta in particular freezes really well. Make giant family size portions. Separate out meal size portions in ziplock baggies and toss ‘em in the freezer. During the week when time is at a premium, you can just defrost one in the microwave in a few minutes.
- My monthly phone bills went from $82/month to $27/month when I switched from AT&T to Charter who provides my cable. I got unlimited data plans with both. I did it because AT&T made my chit list for supporting Leftists. Only after I started looking around did I realize how badly they were hosing me charging me an extra $55/month for nothing.
- Do you need a whole bunch of streaming services? I get a monthly streaming service with no contract during the 4 months per year of college football season and then I drop it as soon as the season is over. The other 8 months per year I have YouTube, Rumble, Dailymotion and other places where I can watch lots of good content for free. That’s in addition to Tubi and other free channels that come with my Roku. I’m amazed at what some of the people I know pay to have Amazon Prime, Hulu, several movie channels, etc etc. Some of them pay hundreds of $ per month on all those streaming channels.
- Need to get away but don’t want to spend a lot of $ to do it? Try hiking. I love getting out in nature, my little hiking buddy (my black lab) loves it too, its good exercise and its both beautiful and peaceful getting away from people and traffic and everything. All it costs is the gas it takes to get there.
- Get a coffee maker and stop giving Starbucks $6-7 per day. Even the Kuerig pods only cost about $1 each. Make your coffee at home.
- Do I even need to say don’t buy a bunch of crap you don’t really need online at places like Amazon because you’re bored? I know people who do this.
Doing the above will not dramatically reduce your standard of living. In some ways they’ll enhance it with better diet, exercise, etc. Just the things outlined there can save you thousands of dollars a year. You just have to break the habit of doing things that cost a lot when you add them up.
Get some cash back credit cards. You can easily find some that will give you 2-3% cash back. Run everything you buy through those cards and set them to pay in full every month so you never carry a balance.
You save hundreds more dollars per year doing that.
Your unnecessary and expensive coffee habit is "quality of life?" My preteen children are going be paying taxes to fund welfare programs for you in 2055, I'm sure.
“Personally, I won’t set foot in a Starbucks “
I’m not as hardline as you. If I’m out and about and suffering from a caffeine-withdrawal headache or driving a long distance and need help staying awake, I’ll spring for coffee from a SBUX or a McD or a Dunkin or similar. And I will also spring for an after-dinner coffee at a restaurant a couple times a month. ABut those 3 or 4 overpriced coffees per month maybe total to like $20/mo or $240/yr.
$4,800/yr in your example is crazy money for coffee, and very much an example of how folks waste money.
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