A Latte a Day Isn’t Going to Ruin Your Retirement
If spending $5 a day on fancy coffee puts your retirement at risk, you’ve got bigger problems.
This has nothing to do with the golden years.
Photographer: Ron Wurzer/Getty Images North AmericaIf you are like millions of other Americans, you spend a few dollars a week on a latte, cappuccino or some other type of luxury coffee. Does this amount to an act of personal financial irresponsibility that can add up to a future in which your well-being in retirement is at risk?
The answer is, probably not — with some caveats. But you wouldn’t know that from personal-finance guru Suze Orman, who warned investors last week that this was sure to set you on the path to poverty in retirement.
Here’s why I hedge: Everyone needs to save for retirement, because it almost goes without saying that if you’re counting on Social Security to see you through the post-work years you are going to be very disappointed.