Buy all the lattes you want

"Sustainability is more important than detailed accuracy," absolutely. I call this "underorganizing," and it's why I don't fold my laundry.

I'm not saying you should not spend money on yourself, I'm saying that rationalizing buying whatever you want by saying it's only such and such an amount is a bad habit. It's like the old joke "a few million here, a few million there, and pretty soon we're talking about real money".

I think of what I spend as an investment, either for financial payback, quality of life, happiness, whatever. I then justify the expense by expected payback and try to determine whether it's worth it or not.

I disagree about the lattes; I used to feel the same way, it's only 2 or 3 dollars (plus tip), maybe $15 a week, $750 a year (hmm). OK, not that much, but it's a way of thinking. There are lots of those little, unnecessary things, that might add up to several thousand a year of after tax money. Hey, Ramit, how much wold that add up to in investments? But, tell people what they want to hear, and you'll be popular. They won't listen anyway if they don't want to hear it!.