Whether you are buying a Starbucks coffee or a smoothie from Jamba Juice for $5 per day, if you skip it and save that money, you'll easily bank more than $1,000 in one year.
"If you assume $5 per day, five days a week, you will save $1,000 in 40 weeks or (10) months," says Rich Arzaga, founder and CEO of Cornerstone Wealth Management in San Ramon, Calif. "Multiply this by saving on a second serving for a spouse or a child, and you cut this time in half."
Arzaga says whatever you buy on a daily basis is a luxury that provides no real benefit than a moment or two of pleasure.
"Turn this short-term goal of saving $1,000 in 40 weeks into a habit," Arzaga says. "Over a 20-year period, assuming a 6 percent, long-term growth rate, saving $5 per day on these pleasures for one drinker will generate over $54,000 in savings. Two drinkers would generate over $100,000 in savings, higher than most people have in their accounts to retire on."