Why the fixation on coffee? If you bought a $5 latte every day you went to work, you’re look at, what, a bit more than $1200/year? If you make $150K/year, that is a perfectly reasonable outlay that won’t compromise your retirement plans. The key is having a balanced life. If you can’t help but buy every shiny thing you see, then that’ll be a problem. But the advice of these Internet personalities is just as poorly balanced in the direction of asceticism. Obviously this is a non-starter for nearly every normal person.

I think the problem is that people are fascinated by schemes that are extreme and highly unbalanced. Even the idea of FIREing… why are so many people obsessed with the idea of retiring early? Why not find a job that isn’t soul sucking and do that? Hey, maybe you get paid less, but maybe you’d have some coworkers you actually like and don’t mind spending time with. You have to be patient with your life to do that, and patience and balance aren’t sexy or exciting, I guess.