The latte factor was the core idea of a book by David Bach:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Latte-Factor-Dont-Have-Rich/dp/1982120231,

In his book, David Bach tells a compelling story that played out how much money your could save if you cut out your daily coffee and invested it on a regular basis. I have to say, his extrapolation of the savings and the returns were a bit crazy wild and he was overstating the amount of money you could end up with if you follow his plan.

The idea was good, but the reality of the latte factor, cutting out coffee is never that easy to establish if you have a busy lifestyle. I like my coffee, correction LIKED…. as yup, I have decided to cut it out and save. Now wait, I know I am contradicting myself but hear me out on this one. I liked my coffee TIME – I liked getting some peaceful time in a coffee shop reflecting, reading and writing. This was a valuable moment in my day and on many occasions it was the highlight of my very busy existence. I wanted to keep this refreshing moment in my life, the challenge I had was that I would spend approximately $7 to $10 pounds a time and for me it was adding up to a whole heap of money.

$7-$10 pounds a day was racking up a yearly cost of roughly $2,500 and I am sure that I could get this cheaper. To be honest what I was spending was almost the same as a membership for WeWork who would give you free coffee – something to think about for the future me. Right now however, I have no time to get the best out of a WeWork membership, yet, and I also have the saving mindset driven by my quest to be FIRE.

My solution was to cut out the large coffee, the cakes and all the trimmings that I would go for and cut back to a simple drip coffee or a even better since the New Year – a Green tea.

The green tea is saving me money, reducing my weight, helping me manage my sugar levels and as I am led to believe, improving my focus. The cost of the yearly green tea; approximately $1,200 so a good old saving there. The opportunity is to recognise the saving and save and invest it as you go or otherwise you will have nothing to show for it. My practice is to save little and often. I save a weekly amount into my vanguard investment portfolio and now because I know I am saving on the coffee front then I have bumped this up by $25 a week. I don’t need to tell you to do the math, you will, but any small saving invested weekly is a plus.

The new me, reflecting on what I have learned here, check the saving opportunity, do the maths and identify what you are saving weekly and pay it out into your savings or investment account as you go and by the end of the year you will most likely be so pleasantly surprised.

A further note to myself and for a future post, coming off caffeine is a serious challenge and you should be ready for that when you take up the challenge as I lived with flu like symptoms for almost three weeks… but felt amazing after the come down.

Two birds with one stone – no caffeine and a great new practice for saving.