John over at EZGreatLife had a really cool post recently highlighting his switch from ordering sodas at restaurants to simply drinking water. I always have tried to drink water when I’m out to save a few bucks, but I never really appreciated how beneficial it is over time.
Running an extensive calculation, John figured how much we can save by simply saying “no thanks, I’ll just have water”. The results were incredible. Eating out once per week, with the average drink cost of $1.75, equals $364 a year just on drinks. For me, that’s like 3 months of car insurance, 6 months worth of cell phone bills, or 12 fill-ups of the Honda. That’s crazy.
To take it even further, he figured how much we would save up if we took those savings each week for 30 years and invested them in an index fund. Assuming the 11% average historical return for the stock market, we would have over $93,000. Awesome. Talk about an easy way to add significantly to your retirement nest egg. What a perfect example of how small, continuous savings combined with compound interest and patience make for an incredible return.
The effects of small changes over time are not limited to finances in this case. Switching just one soda to a water every week saves a lot of empty calories over time. We’ll say that our pop has 150 calories in it: (150 x 52 weeks = 7,800 extra calories in one year). One pound of body fat is equivalent to about 3,500 calories, so we are saving 2.05 pounds worth of calories just by switching one drink a week. A 160 pound person, who burns approximately 85 calories per hour by walking, just saved 91 hours of walking those calories off.
It’s hard to tell which is more eye-opening, the finance or the health benefits of making one simple switch. All I know is that I’m going to definitely keep this in mind each time I visit a restaurant. Thanks John for the awesome post!
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