We all have our habits. Some are especially pervasive in the military. Maybe it’s your daily energy drink — I averaged nearly one BANG energy drink a day in 2019. Maybe it’s your cigarette or chewing tobacco addiction. Perhaps it’s your daily Starbucks run. Regardless, today we’re going to take a look at what that habit is costing you in potential income by seeing what would happen had you invested that money in the stock that provides your vice rather than partaking in said vice.
As we close out the decade, let’s track what your habit has cost you over the past 10 years. We will examine three vices: tobacco, energy drinks, and coffee. I get it, you need these to function in the military at times but we’ll calculate what they cost you yearly.
We’ll simplify it like this: Let’s say you work 5 days a week for 50 weeks a year and purchase your daily cigarettes, energy drinks, or coffee at the following rates.
As you can see, the annual cost of each product ranges from $625.000 to $1,000.00 based on those estimates. That’s what you are paying out of pocket on an annual basis — not to mention any health related impacts. We will now take the $937.50, $625.00, and $1,000 annually and invest it in Philip Morris (PM), Monster (MNST), and Starbuck’s (SBUX) respectively at the end of each year starting December 31, 2009 and ending today. The results are shown below.
We definitely have to acknowledge the fact that the stock market has remained hot for the past decade but the results are clear. If you ditch, or even reduce some of your habits and invest that money, the results can be incredibly beneficial to your financial well-being.
So next time you think about going on a Starbucks run, grabbing some tobacco, or drinking another energy drink, consider what you are potentially giving up. Doing so for the past decade could have landed you a nice car! $
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Military Money Matters 