Enter your daily spending habits to see the true 10-20 year cost — and what it would grow to if invested instead.
The Latte Factor is the idea that small daily spending habits add up to large amounts over time. $5/day on coffee = $1,825/year = $26,000+ over 10 years if invested at 7%. This is not about giving up coffee — it is about knowing the real long-term cost of automatic daily habits so you can make intentional choices.
When financial author David Bach coined the term "Latte Factor," critics immediately pushed back: "Are you telling me I cannot enjoy my morning coffee?" That is not the point. The point is awareness — knowing the true long-term cost of automatic, unconscious spending habits so that you make an active choice rather than a passive one.
If you know your daily coffee habit costs $26,000 over 10 years in forgone investment growth and you still choose the coffee, that is a perfectly valid decision. What is not valid is spending $5/day without knowing that number exists.
💡 The high-impact version: The Latte Factor works best when applied to spending you do not actually enjoy that much. The $12 mediocre lunch you eat out of habit, not pleasure, is the real target — not the $5 coffee you genuinely love.
Enter your three most automatic daily spending habits — things you buy regularly without much thought. Be honest. This is not about judgment, it is about information. Once you see the 10-year number, you will naturally start making more intentional decisions.
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