Coffee Craze
There’s been a real buzz around the office recently fueled by the caffeine high as co-workers everywhere lead themselves towards 40 years of work in order to fund inflated lifestyles… and I think I may have found the culprit.
A couple of weeks ago, I walked into the downstairs reception and was greeted by the horror that was this early retirement killer:
That’s right; no longer will we be forced to endure sunlight and the general public in order to obtain our heated cups of artificial energy! Every morning I’ll need to literally walk directly past the pastries and deep aroma before heading up to the office cubical. Stay strong EarlyRetirementGuy and think of the thousands saved by not indulging.
Already my co-worker’s desks are littered with the remains of cardboard coffee cups like fallen soldiers in a lost battle against financial independence. The lady next to me consumes several of these a day! The worst part of all of this, and what I cant seem to figure out, is why people continue to throw money away on expensive ground coffee when every floor of our office already has a free coffee machine complete with daily added fresh milk, real china mugs and a built in coffee grinder!
Not only are they ruining their wealth with a daily coffee purchase, there’s also the hit on the environment from all of the wastage that doesn’t get recycled. It’s literally less effort to walk the 10 paces to the kitchen and fill up a reusable mug from this machine than to get the lift down 7 floors and spend £3 on a drink made from the same ingredients! And yet every morning when I walk past the stand downstairs I need to dodge the queue waiting to buy their caffeine fix. Madness.
It’s exactly this sort of daily habit purchasing which have such a major impact upon financial independence. Aside from the actual expense of purchase there’s also the consideration that these purchases will likely continue and need to be funded during retirement. A £3 a day purchase isn’t just £1095 less a year going towards networth.. it’s another £1095 that needs to be taken from annual retirement income. At 4% withdrawl rates, this daily purchase requires over £27,000 to fund. A double hit from your caffeine hit!
Often it’s only small substitutes that need to be made to have a big impact on your finances and this is a classic example of such a situation.
How about you guys? What wealth destroying regular purchases have you managed to substitute?
6 thoughts on “Coffee Craze”
I admit, I do like good coffee. I work from home now, but my previous employer had free single serve coffee machines on each floor. The catch was, you had one flavor. Starbucks “Medium”. The catch-all flavor. I learned to drink it. It does have a bitter finish. Many people didn’t like the “medium” roast. So they went and paid $2 for a cup multiple times per day about 20 feet from the free one. I asked for years to rotate a different roast in. Nope. Medium. Middle. Center. It’s free. I just drank it and sat quietly in my tiny little cube.
I tend to avoid the little things and then blow $130 on a new pair of running shoes. I’ve culled my hobbies down to so few, that I am ok with splurges on running shoes.
Consumers are really bombarded with ways to spend money. It is almost a daily war against the marketing machine of the world to not spend.
Wade, Gotta be careful you don’t become penny rich & pound (or dollar) poor. Unless those running shoes are far better quality that they last infinitely longer, in which case it becomes a sound investment :)
I agree that is is a daily war against spending!
ERG,
Good stuff. I agree with the waste – both in money and environmental terms.
I personally don’t really care for coffee. Or beer, for that fact. I guess I’m lucky! :)
Best wishes!
Hi Jason, Thanks for stopping by!
I hate waste, especially when there’s such an easy alternative available with less effort. I’m not a massive coffee drinker which makes me even more reluctant to spend money on it!
Agree with the waste, what a shame. I’ve been drinking less coffee nowadays. Even if I do drink coffee I get it at home or work. I do not use disposable cups.
The amount of waste generated by these takeaway food/drink places is just insane.. Plus its much nicer to drink coffee from a real mug.