How much are you spending on fast food?

Have you ever experienced that moment right after work when you feel exhausted, stressed or hungry, and while driving home you decide to stop by a drive-thru? Or it’s early in the morning and you need a pick-me-up so you stop by the local coffee shop to get some caffeine? Although they may seem like impulse or infrequent purchases, it’s amazing to see how fast and how much money you might spend over a year!

Imagine buying a $5 cup of coffee 3 times per week for an entire year; that’s $780 you spend per year just on coffee. Or maybe you buy fast food 2 times a week at about $9 per meal for a year, which is about $936! If you do a mixture of the two options, it could be more than $1000 you spend per year on convenience items.

Regardless of what stage you’re at in life, it’s important to keep a close eye on your spending. Just visualize all of that money you could save on skipping the drive-thru or coffee shop per year, and put towards an investment? It could definitely pay off in the future!

For example, if you were you put only $90 per month towards a hypothetical investment earning 1.25% instead of fast food for 30 years, compounded monthly – that could amount to over an extra $39,000 saved for your retirement. Be sure to explore your options and see how you could earn the most from your financial institution.