Would you rather spend $2 on average per day on coffee or have $119,754 in 40 years? (based on 6% annual interest rate, from http://finishrich.com/lattefactor/)

You may say yes and you may say no. I don’t judge you either way. There are many things I would rather experience today than have lots of money later. However there are other things I choose to go without. What I want for you is to know your priorities and to make an intentional and conscious choice versus an unconscious one.

Why should I care about my credit score? – c.c.

Ok so what I am hearing is, “Why should I care about my credit score when it doesn’t matter because I’ll never afford to buy a house in sf/nyc?.. and I don’t need a car.” I can understand this…

Now, it doesn’t take an economist to discover that housing is barely affordable for people with “fill in the blank” situations (certain jobs, students, broke asses, etc.), especially those who live in cities with extremely high costs of living.

Did you know that “very low” income for one person living in San Francisco is $39,600?

Having a difficult conversation about finances is a coming out of sorts. When I dated a woman for the first time I was totally closeted. The amount of energy it took to keep that secret was enormous. I made up horrible stories in my head about how my friends and family would react to me having a girlfriend. After talking about it, I remember saying, “that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” which is exactly what clients say about having the difficult conversation.

What about those situations when you are thinking, “Am I supposed to tip this person? If I do will I offend them? If I don’t will I offend them? If I do tip, how much should I give?” Then you ask your friend “dude, how much are you giving?” then you give more because your friend is a joker and you wanna tip right.

What do you value? What are your priorities? It is impossible to look at spending and savings to see if it is aligned with your priorities if you don’t know what your priorities are. In addition, if I told you how to spend and save your money based on my priorities or Joe Bob’s, then you may do it for a short time but in the long run it isn’t sustainable. You create sustainability when you identify your priorities and align your spending and savings with those priorities.

Our culture values time and money over health and wellness. Do you?

So we want to save money and spend less on “everything” including food. Unfortunately we assume that eating healthy foods is more time consuming and more expensive. In many cases it is. Several years ago I lived alone and traveled a lot. I was sure that I could save money by dining out because I wasted so many groceries. At that time I was eating a lot of fast food, maybe 5-7 times per week or more.

A week ago I woke up one day and said, “I NEED A HAIRCUT!” I thought about calling one of the last two people who cut my hair, and I thought, “I don’t want to spend the money,” “I am going to be traveling and pulling my hair back, why should I pay to get a nice haircut,” “They won’t be available this afternoon which is when I need the haircut,” etc.