The Iced Tea Story

I’ve always been a saver, so, in my case it came from nature, not nurture. If there’s a penny on the ground, you’ll see me picking it. I keep a plastic cup in my car, and it currently holds about $5 or $6 of pennies, nickels, dimes, etc. from about two years of pickings. My parents didn’t provide financial direction or training when I was growing up which I think is the case in most families. I’ve just been wired like a squirrel to collect nuts for the winter that will come. 

One of my nerdy intuitions was to figure out that large financial impacts can come from minor, cumulative actions. Anyone who knows me, knows I drink lots of iced tea year-round. When I was much younger, I got into the habit of stopping by a drive-thru every workday morning to buy a mongo-sized iced tea for work. One day when I was sitting in the not-so-fast line waiting for my tea order, I occupied the time on my pocket calculator (this was pre-cell phone days). I decided to calculate how much I’d spend on iced tea during the rest of my work life. (Using 2022 prices) I assumed one giant iced tea five days a week for 50 weeks over 30 years. I used a 3% annual increase in price. Result? That $2.30 tea habit would cost me $27,995! Just for tea!

Now I didn’t stop drinking iced tea, but I did switch to making it at home and carrying it to work in a recycled plastic cup with a lid. My new cost was about 9 cents a cup. And I gained at least 15 minutes of extra sleep in the morning that I wouldn’t spend in that drive-thru line. Most importantly, I then chose to increase my monthly automatic savings deposits by $50 (the approximate savings amount) so that $27,995 would come to me, not the restaurant. And I didn’t feel a thing by that switch.

By analyzing your daily spending habits and redirecting even small amounts of cash flow to increased automatic savings activity creates a powerful financial positive. You don’t have to be born a saver to make this strategy work for you.

Guest blog written by Grace Worley, Retired Founder of Worley Erhart-Graves Financial Advisors