In Part II of the Financial Cleanse, we’ll talk about Making it Automatic.

In the Automatic Millionaire (by now, you must think I’m in love with David Bach since I mention him non-stop) he talks about making it automatic.  You pay your cell phone bill, your rent, your utilities, and then you have some money left over.  You spend like usual, and at the end of the month, you have $25 to spare, so you put it away in savings.  The next month- same thing, you have $15 to spare, so you put it away in savings.

I used to roll like this and it didn’t work.

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I know a lot of personal finance bloggers have mentioned the Latte Factor at some point or another, but I really like it- it really ‘hits home’ for me so I wanted to write about it too.  What is the Latte Factor, you ask?  The Latte Factor is a phrase coined by David Bach, the author of The Automatic Millionaire.  He says that most people have these small seemingly insignificant purchases daily (like the latte that you get at Starbucks before you head to work) that really add up.

If you spend $3.50 on a latte every day when you go to work, that adds up to be  about $17.50 a week (for a five day work week).  Multiply that by 52 weeks and you get $910 a year.  Yes, that’s almost a grand per year on coffee!

Let’s say for example you decided to sock away the $3.50 per work day into savings instead every year for 25 years.  If you compound interest that amount at a reasonable rate of 6% per year for 25 years, you’d end up with $56,827.91.  So that grand that you end up saving per year becomes 55 grand in 25 years.  Pretty crazy, huh?

If you somehow manage to cut those daily expenses out, you’re saving money big time.  I’m not saying deprive yourself of your life and its perks, like if you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE that latte, maybe you can buy one of those machines to make your own before work.  Compromise, right?

What’s MY Latte Factor?

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The Automatic Millionaire:

A Powerful One Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich

By: David Bach

The Automatic Millionaire was one of the first financial books I have read. David Bach is an international best seller with his books- he has multiple books that spawn off the idea of this first book (For example, Start Late Finish Rich, Smart Couples Finish Rich, The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner. The Automatic Millionaire has a simple and key message.  He says that it is human nature to screw up budgets.

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