Retiring to Starbucks

You've heard of the latte factor, right?

That's the amount of money that a person fritters away on lattes or bottled water or cigarettes or massages or acrylic nails or other non-essentials. The idea is to eliminate (or reduce) one's personal latte factor with the goal of becoming a millionaire by retirement age--and all without significantly altering one's lifestyle.

I'm down to one latte per week from my previous average of seven, and so is Doug. Right there, we should already be gazillionaires, so what's the deal? I forfeited the nails a couple years back, but my portfolio remains lackluster. I drink tap water exclusively and have never smoked, but am tempted to for comfort when I consider the sorry retirement looming up ahead.

I occasionally think about getting a massage, but even the thought of it induces a guilty pleasure that makes me tense enough to need several sessions with a chiropractor to recover, and there goes my money.

Scott's been here today working with Doug, and he may have solved our retirement woes.

"If you'd just install Cold Fusion on your computer," I overheard him say to his dad, "I'll bet you could save two hours a day."

I'm no slouch. I can do the math. In ten seconds, I'd calculated that at Doug's hourly rate times two hours per day, multiplied by the number of years left until we retire, we'd have a cool $1,080,000, not counting interest.

"How much does it cost?" I asked Scott.

"I don't know...maybe $800?"

"Wouldn't cost me a thing," Doug chimed in. "I've had a copy sitting in the closet for a couple of years."

Sigh. I'm going out for a latte.

Posted by Katy on 07/09/04 at 01:20 PM

Fallible Comments...

So, that's my problem. (Okay, one of my problems...) I drink coffee AND get weekly massages. Damn, there goes the kids' inheritance.
-----
Posted by Bridget on 07/09/04 at 11:43 PM
Yeah. I saw the guy who wrote the book on Oprah. (David Bach, "The Automatic Millionaire")He helps people who believe they can't save money identify their latte factors. Then he says, "And if you save that $5/day for 35 years, and get a ten percent return, you'll have..." and invariably they say, "How long? 35 frickin' YEARS?" And then their eyes glaze over. It's good TV!
Posted by Katy on 07/10/04 at 03:52 AM
Speaking of Oprah...did you see the one a few days ago about medical "screw-ups" (such as treating a woman for cancer and removing both breasts when she didn't have cancer at all)? Made me remember your book idea again about being your own advocate. I keep saying my only chance of getting better AT ALL is if all my doctors/specialists were to have 30 minutes in the same room together to discuss my case and figure out how they can help me. Of course THAT will never happen... Anyway, it was a great Oprah.
Posted by Bridget on 07/11/04 at 01:06 AM
Bridget, The current medical climate is not a good one. I don't know how it is in the Burg, but in Kansas City, if I'm admitted to the hospital, my primary doctor never comes to see me. I'm handed off to doctors who are employed by the hospital, who know nothing about my history except for what I'm presenting with at that time. My doc just receives reports, and by the time he gets those, I could be mostly dead.

I found this out when my insurance said I could no longer use the ER we'd always gone to, and I called my doc's office to find out where he had what they used to call " hospital privileges."

"You can go wherever your insurance dictates, without regard to your primary doctor. The doctor doesn't make rounds at any hospital," the receptionist said, and finally I understood why he hadn't been to see me the last four or five times I was in!

It would not be a bad idea for everyone to keep a current file of their own medical histories available for when we need to make runs to the hosp, including pertinent xrays, MRIs, obvously a current list of all medications including dosages, etc. Otherwise, the way I understand it, each time we go in, we're starting from scratch building a history. Very, very scary.
Posted by Katy on 07/12/04 at 03:49 AM
Yep, when we just did a hospital visit for Jim a couple of weeks ago in the middle of the night for headache hell, I remembered to write down all his meds and dosages since he would never be able to remember them in his condition. I was glad I had them since that was info they needed. I just am so frustrated with the health care industry as a whole...
Posted by Bridget on 07/12/04 at 02:50 PM

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Personal blog of christian writer & fallible mom Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri Katy is represented by Greg Johnson at WordServe Literary Read more Katy at LateBoomer.net Follow Katy on Twitter Follow Katy on Facebook 123 Recent Posts Try Becoming Brenda Starr Off Beat Scattered That’s It So I’ve Finally Signed With An Agent. Now What? The Spoon Sciatica Sweetheart A Woman’s Train of Thought Has No Caboose However much we own, we are all still living on borrowed time After all, when restaurants shrink portions, they don’t shrink prices. As with everything in life, balance is key. Slow down, you move too fast… Yeah, I know. I have issues. Search Advanced Search Syndicate Login E me at katy @ ngenius.com	Retiring to Starbucks You've heard of the latte factor, right? That's the amount of money that a person fritters away on lattes or bottled water or cigarettes or massages or acrylic nails or other non-essentials. The idea is to eliminate (or reduce) one's personal latte factor with the goal of becoming a millionaire by retirement age--and all without significantly altering one's lifestyle. I'm down to one latte per week from my previous average of seven, and so is Doug. Right there, we should already be gazillionaires, so what's the deal? I forfeited the nails a couple years back, but my portfolio remains lackluster. I drink tap water exclusively and have never smoked, but am tempted to for comfort when I consider the sorry retirement looming up ahead. I occasionally think about getting a massage, but even the thought of it induces a guilty pleasure that makes me tense enough to need several sessions with a chiropractor to recover, and there goes my money. Scott's been here today working with Doug, and he may have solved our retirement woes. "If you'd just install Cold Fusion on your computer," I overheard him say to his dad, "I'll bet you could save two hours a day." I'm no slouch. I can do the math. In ten seconds, I'd calculated that at Doug's hourly rate times two hours per day, multiplied by the number of years left until we retire, we'd have a cool $1,080,000, not counting interest. "How much does it cost?" I asked Scott. "I don't know...maybe $800?" "Wouldn't cost me a thing," Doug chimed in. "I've had a copy sitting in the closet for a couple of years." Sigh. I'm going out for a latte. Posted by Katy on 07/09/04 at 01:20 PM Fallible Comments... So, that's my problem. (Okay, one of my problems...) I drink coffee AND get weekly massages. Damn, there goes the kids' inheritance. ----- Posted by Bridget on 07/09/04 at 11:43 PM Yeah. I saw the guy who wrote the book on Oprah. (David Bach, "The Automatic Millionaire")He helps people who believe they can't save money identify their latte factors. Then he says, "And if you save that $5/day for 35 years, and get a ten percent return, you'll have..." and invariably they say, "How long? 35 frickin' YEARS?" And then their eyes glaze over. It's good TV! Posted by Katy on 07/10/04 at 03:52 AM Speaking of Oprah...did you see the one a few days ago about medical "screw-ups" (such as treating a woman for cancer and removing both breasts when she didn't have cancer at all)? Made me remember your book idea again about being your own advocate. I keep saying my only chance of getting better AT ALL is if all my doctors/specialists were to have 30 minutes in the same room together to discuss my case and figure out how they can help me. Of course THAT will never happen... Anyway, it was a great Oprah. Posted by Bridget on 07/11/04 at 01:06 AM Bridget, The current medical climate is not a good one. I don't know how it is in the Burg, but in Kansas City, if I'm admitted to the hospital, my primary doctor never comes to see me. I'm handed off to doctors who are employed by the hospital, who know nothing about my history except for what I'm presenting with at that time. My doc just receives reports, and by the time he gets those, I could be mostly dead. I found this out when my insurance said I could no longer use the ER we'd always gone to, and I called my doc's office to find out where he had what they used to call " hospital privileges." "You can go wherever your insurance dictates, without regard to your primary doctor. The doctor doesn't make rounds at any hospital," the receptionist said, and finally I understood why he hadn't been to see me the last four or five times I was in! It would not be a bad idea for everyone to keep a current file of their own medical histories available for when we need to make runs to the hosp, including pertinent xrays, MRIs, obvously a current list of all medications including dosages, etc. Otherwise, the way I understand it, each time we go in, we're starting from scratch building a history. Very, very scary. Posted by Katy on 07/12/04 at 03:49 AM Yep, when we just did a hospital visit for Jim a couple of weeks ago in the middle of the night for headache hell, I remembered to write down all his meds and dosages since he would never be able to remember them in his condition. I was glad I had them since that was info they needed. I just am so frustrated with the health care industry as a whole... Posted by Bridget on 07/12/04 at 02:50 PM Page 1 of 1 pages Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Next entry: Foot in Blog Disease Previous entry: The Forrest for the Trees << Back to main


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Retiring to Starbucks

Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri