A Latte a Day Isn’t Going to Ruin Your Retirement
If spending $5 a day on fancy coffee puts your retirement at risk, you’ve got bigger problems.
Bloomberg, April 3, 2019
If you are like millions of other Americans, you spend a few dollars a week on a latte, cappuccino or some other type of luxury coffee. Does this amount to an act of personal financial irresponsibility that can add up to a future in which your well-being in retirement is at risk?
The answer is, probably not — with some caveats. But you wouldn’t know that from personal-finance guru Suze Orman, who warned investors last week that this was sure to set you on the path to poverty in retirement.
Here’s why I hedge: Everyone needs to save for retirement, because it almost goes without saying that if you’re counting on Social Security to see you through the post-work years you are going to be very disappointed.
Yet, if spending $5 a day on coffee means the difference between financial security and penury, you have much bigger problems. Eliminating the daily latte or avocado toast will not get the job done.
So go ahead and indulge in the small things (the big things are a different story). But let’s take a look at some of the issues that Orman brings up . . .
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I originally published this at Bloomberg, April 3, 2019. All of my Bloomberg columns can be found here and here.
