Saving the Starbucks, even at a $4/day - $1000/yr habit, isn't what will allow someone to retire vastly earlier than "normal". It's funny reading those Clickbate™ lists that come out every now and then across the financial news web sites proclaiming how you can save so much money by doing "just these 5 things".
News flash America. If you want to retire early, for reelz, you have to stuff thousands away monthly. Not yearly...
Saving a couple thousand bucks a year on "life's little luxuries" isn't what separates someone who retires at 40 vs. 65. The little things help (a little) but they in no way can compare to sharpening your pencil on your housing, transportation, and "extra curricular activity" columns AND increasing your income while you do it (the big secret - you can't save what you don't have).
To some extent yes, to some extent no.
A $4 Starbucks daily is much closer to $1,500 than $1,000
But then there's the $1,500/year spent on a cable package.
And $1,500 extra a year spent on extravagant use of utilities
And an extra $1,500 a year from excessive car usage
Etc.
Eventually these things really do add up. I'm not talking about eliminating car usage or shutting off the heat in winter (that would be far higher savings) - just getting the average consumer's usage down to a reasonable level.
Median household income is around $59,000 a year in the USA. By ignoring the above as "trivial" we would have already blown 10% of the gross income on fripperies.
