Thursday, January 21, 2016

Bad Habits Week Day 3: Fast Food Soda

Another habit that I sometimes partake in is ordering soda at fast food restaurants. This is bad in two ways. First, it’s cheaper to go to the drive thru and then buy soda at the grocery store. Second, it’s bad for your physical as well as your financial health.

Let’s say you eat out twice a day. Fast food soda can cost $1.79 for a medium size cup. That equals $3.58 per day. Multiply that by 365 day and you get $1,306.70. Assuming a 10% per annum return over the course of a 40 year career span which is the oft quoted historical return of the stock market as a whole, you would have $59,140.27.  That figure balloons to $350,017.30 assuming a 15% compound annual growth rate. Remember that is if you give up fast food sodas and sodas in general as well as paying for bottled water for only 1 year.


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