I’m a Millennial who’s put $250,000 in the bank towards retirement savings already. Not because I make a lot of money. And not because I only eat beans and rice.
By making a few small changes, you can slowly but consistently put away money that will add up to a large amount.
A few quick statistics:
- The average household spends over $3,000 a year on eating out
- The average American spends over $2,000 a year on coffee
- The average American spends 1% of their gross income on alcohol
- The average American has 3.4 streaming services, at an average cost of almost $9 each per month
And these are just averages. Chances are, if you live in a big city, the numbers are much higher for you.
Saving money requires consistently putting away small amounts. And you can do this by making a few simple lifestyle changes. I’m not going to ask you to give up eating out. Or give up alcohol or coffee. Or cancel all your streaming services. Just do the following:
> Pack your lunch and eat out for lunch out 1 less time per week
> Cook at home and eat out for dinner 1 less time per week
> Drink 1 less alcoholic beverage per week
> Drink 1 less coffee per week
> Cancel 1 of your monthly streaming services
- Eating out for lunch just one less time a week will save you $44 a month ($11 for lunch x 4 weeks)
- Eating out for dinner just one less time a week will save you $80 a month ($20 for dinner x 4 weeks)
- Drinking 1 less alcoholic beverage per week will save you $40 a month ($10 for a drink x 4 weeks)
- Drinking 1 less coffee per week will save you $16 a month ($4 for a coffee x 4 weeks)
- Cancelling 1 of your streaming services will save you $9 a month
Add all of this together and it comes out to savings of $189 per month.
Take the $189 a month you’re saving and put it in a mutual fund that matches the returns of the S&P 500. The stock market, on average, gives you a return of 8% after you account for inflation.
Once a month, add the money you’ve saved from above into a mutual fund like the Vanguard 500 Index Investor Share Class or the Fidelity 500 Index Fund.
If you do this consistently every month, this is what the returns will look like for you over a 30-year period.
Remember, you won’t get rich overnight, but just by slightly reducing the money you spend on eating out, coffee, alcohol, and tv, you’ll save over a quarter-million dollars.
Nearly $300,000, just from some very minor lifestyle changes. Imagine how much you could save with just a few more changes. Find the small lifestyle changes you can make watch how it adds up to big savings over the long run.
—
Previously published on medium
*******************************
***
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want to join our calls on a regular basis, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
Talk to you soon.
*************************
Photo credit: Unsplash