Yet we still don't want to believe it. A decade after Elizabeth Warren first revealed that the leading cause of bankruptcies was medical spending, Americans continue to discuss our financial woes as though we only have to give up a few habits to solve their checkbook woes.
It's a nice fairy tale. It's also not true.
Maybe the biggest misconception about building wealth is that it is a function of our income. In reality, it is much more a function of our spending habits.
But most people are simply unaware of how much money they spend—not so much on the large purchases, but on the small things, we spend money on every day.
The latest to take on the challenge of convincing Americans of the reality of their financial lives is Joseph N Cohen, an assistant professor of sociology at Queens College. In a paper released this past weekend at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in New York City, Cohen used figures from the Bureau of Labour Statistics to bust the myth of the latte factor: the idea that we're wasting our precious funds on pointless luxuries.
Cohen found that we're not spending more on things we don't need to get through the day. On the contrary, we're spending less. Between the mid-1980s and the mid-00s, Americans' spending on clothes fell by 28%; alcohol 12%; tobacco 25%; vehicle purchases 15% and vehicle maintenance 24%. Overall expenditures on food also declined, with spending on in-home meals falling by 8% and restaurant dining by a more modest 3%.
Where did the money go? Consider your own circumstances, and you're likely to see the most common increases in spending. During the same period of time, we spent almost 20% more on housing and 32% more on healthcare, which includes a more than 100% rise in the cost of health insurance and 41% of pharmaceuticals. Education? An astonishing 60% increase. Gas went up by 23% and auto insurance by 29%.
Cohen summed it up aptly:
"A colleague of mine once told me that America is a place where the luxuries are cheap but the necessities expensive. A cell phone is affordable. What's killing people is housing and childcare and medical expenses."
Think of it this way. An iced tea I purchased Saturday at Abbot's Habit in Venice Beach, California, cost $2.50. I pay just under $1,300 a month for a health insurance policy that … well, let's just say it's less than generous.
Doing the math shows that I would have to give up 520 iced caffeine drinks a month to pay my health insurance bill, and I still would not cover all my family's medical expenses. As University of California-Irvine law school professor Katherine Porter told me in my book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry: "You can't latte yourself to bankruptcy. The bladder won't stand for it."
Oh, and one other thing: our salaries are plunging. Median household income in 2011 equalled that in 1996.
Moreover, Cohen argues that telling people to cut back can lead them into worse financial trouble in the long-run. Take housing, for instance: people stretch not to buy the latest in McMansions, but to make sure their children are in a decent school district. In a country where education spending is determined on a hyper-local level, Cohen explains:
"It's not irrational to spend to your financial limits to buy in the best neighbourhood you can.
"People are making a trade-off. I can have personal financial security or send my children to a school with art and physical education. Or I can worry about retirement or worry about crime and a long commute."
Other major expenses also offer similar, "damned if you do, damned if you don't" choices. Give up health insurance and you'll save money – till the day you need more than basic care. Skip college and your lifetime earnings are almost certainly impacted. As a result, Cohen says our financial lives are increasingly a lose-lose situation, where if we lose a job or get into a car accident, we almost immediately slip over the financial edge.
Yet the situation feels so normal to us that we don't question it. Believing we're a nation of latte-swilling wastrels stops us from addressing the real causes of our personal financial woes: ever-increasing income inequality, falling salaries, and a lack of adequate government funding for everything from healthcare to education.
So why does the latte meme, though a fallacy, persist? Cohen told me he believes the myth of the fiscally promiscuous American appeals on both sides of the political spectrum. On the right, it lands squarely in the camp of personal responsibility – the idea that we are fully masters (or mistresses) of our fate. At the same time, fictions about our supposed free-spending ways also fits into a long-running leftist critique of the consumerist society – the idea that somehow our spending on luxuries is morally wrong.
The idea that our friends and neighbours waste their money also makes us feel better about our own decisions, if we embrace it. "It's wonderful for our self-esteem to look down at everyone else," Cohen told me.
But what's good for our day-to-day mental health does not make for good public policy.
David Bach, a financial author, assigns a memorable phrase to this phenomenon. He describes the small amounts we spend here and there as the Latte Factor. It comes from the notion that if we added up the cost of our daily lattes and saved it or invested it, we could build up wealth significantly faster.
As a certified money coach, he encourages his clients to build up a “rainy day” fund for events they could not have planned for: a car accident, a water leak, or even a sudden job loss. The most common objection he hears is, “Where will I find the money to save for this emergency fund?”
He always introduces them to the Latte Factor. He says “I challenge them to track every expenditure for one month. I can almost guarantee that those who complete the challenge will be surprised to discover where their money has been disappearing to.
I have used this tracking experiment with hundreds of people from all different socio-economic backgrounds.”
Here are the 8 most common money leaks he has witnessed:
1. Eating out. Americans go out for lunch on average twice a week and eat 18.2 meals per month outside the home—this averages to spending $232 each month eating meals prepared outside the home. At first glance, this may sound high—surely we don’t spend as much as the average.
But we tend to disregard how quickly it adds up: quick lunches at the office cafeteria, business lunches with associates, little snacks from the vending machine, a bag of chips before we hop on the train, pizza takeout on the way home, a weekend date, or a night out with friends. We never make all these purchases in the same day, but over the course of 30 days, they definitely begin to add up.
2. Coffee. There is no question that coffee plays an important role in workplaces across the United States—even the Latte Factor draws its name from the beverage. But rarely do we realize how much money we actually spend on it. The average American spends almost $15 a week on coffee or $1,100 annually.
This may seem like a significant amount of money to some or not much to others. But either way, it is money that could be directed toward paying down credit card debt, a student loan, or a burdensome car payment.
3. Books and magazines. Reading is important. He encourages people to do more of it. But if you are a prolific (or even regular) reader, you may not realize how much of your money is being spent on books and magazines. Book purchases are often small in nature, but if consistent, they add up. Frequently, readers who complete this tracking exercise are surprised how much of their income is spent there.
We are fortunate to live in a country where almost all communities have their own public libraries. Why not use them as much as possible? Another solution is to find a group of friends or family who regularly exchange and borrow books with one another.
4. Unused utility services. Paying our utility bills blindly often leads to overpaying for services. Are you watching all the cable channels you are currently paying for? When was the last time you used the 3-way calling or the call-forwarding options on your home phone? Taking a few minutes to review your bills and asking yourself if you really need these services could save you money every single month.
Call your service provider and ask what specials they currently have or what they can do to help decrease your bill. You may be pleasantly surprised how much a 10-minute phone call will save you.
5. Extra banking fees. When we don’t take the time to review our monthly bank statements, we often fall into the trap of blindly paying banking fees we could easily avoid—especially if you swipe your debit card more than your plan covers. Overdraft fees are another way your bank account gets hit or withdrawing cash from an ATM that is not associated with your bank.
You can quickly rack up $20 or more of additional fees each month if your banking plan is not the right fit, or if you consistently avoid walking one more block to withdraw money from your own bank’s ATM. Take the time to review your bank statement each month looking for inconsistencies. When you do, make a special note of Bank Charge line items.
6. iTunes. These days, most of us own a smartphone where our credit card is automatically linked to an online store. As might be expected, this arrangement makes it easy for us to press the “Buy it Now” button. One day, it’s a cool ringtone that “you really really want”; the next day, it’s a newly released single from your favorite artist; the day after, it’s a new app that seems so useful or entertaining.
And the cost is not just financial. While smartphone users spend $25 billion on mobile apps, we also spend over 2 hours every day using them.
7. Lottery tickets. When we are struggling financially, buying a lottery ticket becomes our glimpse of hope. For a few moments, when we are checking the numbers, we feel as if our life worries will suddenly vanish and our dream of living a debt-free life will finally come true. Through this small ticket, we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But the truth is, it is simply an illusion. Hopes of a better life cannot be bought with $2 or $5. It’s something you consciously work towards, every day.
8. Amazon purchases. He spoke recently with a friend who ran his Amazon account history and was shocked to discover he had spent $11,000 over the past 4 years on Amazon. He noted that his history included one large purchase over $1,000 (a new laptop) and a few more items over $500. But the vast majority of his total bill had been spent purchasing items in the $10-$20 range.
These online purchases seemed small and insignificant individually. But over time, these impulse buys added up to a very significant number—the very definition of the Latter Factor.
Some of the areas above are certainly more relevant to you than others. They merely represent the 8 most common money leaks he has witnessed.
Paying attention to the small money leaks, while they are still leaks, will prevent them from becoming floods. More importantly, it will allow you to build your safety cushion to fall on when life happens.
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