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- Buying a cup of coffee or lunch is a stupid waste of money, Kevin O’Leary says.
- The “Shark Tank” star says little treats hurt people’s savings and can even delay their retirement.
- “You go to work, you spend $15 on a sandwich — what are you, an idiot?” he said on a podcast.
It’s not your imagination — coffee has been getting more expensive in recent years. A supply shock was triggered in 2021 when frost decimated crops in Brazil, which accounts for close to two-thirds of the world’s Arabica production.
The price of Arabica beans hit a 13-year high of $2.59 a pound in August this year, and other factors such as climate change mean the cost for consumers is likely to keep rising.
Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Niccol, said recently that the coffee chain will review its pricing — and may cut back on deals and promotions too.
Making your own brew is one way to minimize the impact of rising prices — and not spending your cash on coffee and prepared food outside your home will also improve your finances.
“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary has long warned of the impact of frivolous spending on small indulgences such as a Starbucks or a sandwich. He says the costs add up quickly, leaving less money to invest, and can ultimately force people to delay retirement because they haven’t saved enough.
In “Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women & Money,” O’Leary spelled out the dangers of squandered cash. “Ghost Money is dead money, money wasted on stupid things, money that should have been invested instead,” he wrote in the book first published in 2012, complaining about “how casually money is flushed down the toilet.”
The O’Leary Ventures chairman calculated that someone who spends $10 a day on cigarettes, $12 a week on coffee, $8 a week on magazines, and $200 a month on lunches for 20 years has effectively “set fire to” about $276,000, assuming they could have earned a 6% compounded annual return on their money instead.
“If you spend a wad of cash on cappuccinos and magazines in your twenties, there’s a good chance you’ll be serving coffee or working in a magazine stall in your seventies to pay for your retirement,” he said.
Fewer people buy magazines now, but in O’Leary’s example, they could easily be substituted for streaming subscriptions or food deliveries. He advised cutting out impulse purchases and parking the resulting savings in a dedicated investment account, as people find it easier to give up bad habits when they can see their balances grow.
O’Leary, the self-proclaimed “Mr. Wonderful,” is known for being blunt about bad ideas and frank in his feedback. He scolded money-wasters on the “Erika Taught Me” podcast last year, a clip of which he shared on Instagram in September.
“Stop buying coffee for $5.50,” O’Leary said, bemoaning that 15% to 20% of many people’s daily spending is on “stupid stuff.”
“You go to work, you spend $15 on a sandwich — what are you, an idiot? It costs you 99¢ to make a sandwich at home and bring it with you,” he said. “You start to add that up every day, it’s a ton of money.”
O’Leary added that young people just starting their careers in cities often “piss away about $15,000 a year” when they’re not earning much, and being so frivolous can lead to financial troubles.
The celebrity investor has shared plenty of personal finance tips over the years. He’s recommended treating purchases like investments, warned against lending to family, advised couples to keep their finances separate, and told people to get married younger and have more kids.