The average person spends $67 a day on discretionary stuff like gas, coffee, and takeout food. That adds up quick.
Sure, some days you won’t spend $67. But other days you might wander into the convenience store after you fill your tank with gas. Or you go home and shop on Amazon (AMZN). Boom… you’re well over $67 for the day.
Make it your goal to spend less. If you keep even just a few of those dollars, it can make a big difference in your net worth.
First, list what you spend each day on routine items like coffee or lunch.
Next, look at your subscriptions. Things like Amazon Prime, Netflix, or HBO Max. You might pay them monthly or annually, but you can get enjoyment from them every day.
I'm not telling you to cut them out. I consider my Dunkin runs essential. You're never going to get rich by denying yourself some small luxuries.
The point is, keep track of what you spend every day. See if you can get it to average $67 a day.
Even better, see if you can keep it even lower.
If you spend $67 a day, that's about $2,000 a month and a little over $24,000 a year.
If you make $50,000, you're spending almost half your salary on discretionary items.
Now of course, in the pandemic, we're all spending a lot less. You spend on what you order online, and that's about it.
The point is to look at your daily habits.
It's easy to get away from that $67 a day average limit. If you know you like to make impulse purchases, you might budget most of that for Amazon and adjust your gas and food lower.
Better yet, budget $40 for gas, food, and other items. Then you'll have an extra $27 a day to play around with.
That's $800 a month you can spend on other stuff… or, even better, save.
You can keep your coffee and cut out something else. Stop going out to lunch every day. Or buy a more fuel-efficient car and save $2 a day on gas.
Set a goal for yourself. Say you want to save $500 a month. All you have to do is put away $17 a day.
If you can save $500 a month, that's $6,000 a year. And guess what? That's an IRA.
That's right. You can fund your retirement by making lunch at home every day.
If you can save $6,000 a year in your IRA for 40 years, you'll have $240,000. With investment returns, you can easily—conservatively—have $600,000 to $700,000.
That gets you a much better retirement for almost no effort. And you can bank on this hack to get you there.
As for what you should invest in, I have an idea for that too. Five of them, actually.
Jared Dillian