How much are we spending on alcohol? Is that conscious allocation, or coping spending to relax? Let’s have a look at some info, no judgement!
Todays topic was inspired by a podcast about Mommy Wine Culture.
I didn’t realise that around 45% of the world are non drinkers.
Or that USA is 33% non drinkers, and 46% less than three drinks per week.
Or that 20% of the UK is teetotal, with 7 in 10 in managerial positions and higher regularly.
Our perspective of drinking is heavily influenced by the people we are around.
That’s quite a lot of money being flushed down the loo.
Enjoying alcohol is a fun hobby to enjoy, if that’s our relationship with it!
But for some of us, a few drinks may be a way to mask stress by relaxing our nervous system.
Or to feel included in social gatherings, and not left out.
It’s up to us to be aware of our reasons.
It’s our choice how we drink, eat, live, spend, manage our money.
And it’s our choice how we build our future. Life, health, wealth. All of it.
I was surprised that 4% of all cancers were alcohol related, with throat / liver / breast cancer top three.
I had no idea!
And I suddenly realised there’s a lot of reasons for us to be conscious of our alcohol choices.
Making sure they serve us, our future selves, and our loved ones long term.
Then it was interesting to look at the money side too.
Let’s say we drink ~$160 a week / near $10k a year including holidays.
Invested at 7% annual interest for 25yrs, that comes close to $54,000-
And that’s just one year of investing money that was being spent on alcohol.
If you invest that monthly $640- over 25yrs it becomes closer to half a million dollars.
If you’re shaky on these types of quick money mindsets, gauge where you can improve with our Savings / Budgeting / Investing free samplers!
Or try our full pillars for a money foundation upgrade in just over a month! (One pillar applied per week.)
But we want to keep drinking! Maybe we’ll just cut down by half.
Halve the amount invested monthly –
still becomes a quarter of a million dollars.
That’s half a decade of average retirement costs covered!
Food for thought.
Now I’m not saying THIS IS THE WAY (yes, Mandalorian reference)
But I didn’t know this stuff, and frankly it was a bit of an eye opener.
If we’re new to this stuff, and a little overwhelmed by where to start – congratulations! You’re here!
If I was drinking these numbers without thinking about it, and just read this, I’d want an easy way to start.
Knowing what I know about our behavioural psychology patterns, I’d do this…
ACTION PLAN IDEA
1. Make no change, other than start expense tracking daily expenses.
2. Focus on diligently tracking expenses up to 3 months. (Including all alcohol.) I use budget app iXpenseit.
3. End of each week + each month, tally the total spent on alcohol & ask what else I can buy with that same amount.
This process applies expense tracking to activate our selective spending choices, which are a natural side effect of seeing total spending amount in areas we were unaware of.
It can be helpful for a little extra extra motivation in stickier habit areas.
We cover selective spending more in the 5-Pillars courses!
Easy habit hacks are my favourite way to create my future, today.
And how MoneyMind is designed too – for the easiest way to the fastest results.
Our quick and simple 5-Pillar checklist helps you see where your money foundations are at.
Try the free samplers to see your status in
Here’s the podcast about Mommy Wine Culture (Apple Podcasts.)
Here’s the fun compound interest calculator I used for the calculations. Try it yourself!