Forgotten Harvest: The True Cost of Food & Luxuries

Money, fiat or otherwise, is something we all need. It's a tool, but so many people seem to forget that. People far too often fall into mindsets of Have and Have-Not. But, what if we look to the past, to the times before we had any sort of currency outside of trading spices, previous metals, or a bartering system. Let's take it to the perspective of a frontiersman's point of view.

You're living on a farm, your family survives on what they can hunt, gather, and grow. People aren't sitting around and eating the seeds, because they know that their entire sustenance for the following year will be dependent upon the growth of those seeds into a crop which will nourish and support their way of life.

Today, we're most often paid in fiat currencies. But, it's more difficult for people to realize their eating their "seeds" for future growth. People too often confuse luxury with necessity.

What do we actually need to survive?

Food, water, and shelter--those are the basics. However, most people living in first world countries would refuse to give up their transportation, their cellphone, their internet connection, their electricity, their television, their entertainment, and so many other things.

Too often, people who have grown up in a first world country can't look around and see how their own lifestyle is affecting their future. Most people are all sitting around "eating" their "seeds." Of course, their buying a $5 coffee in the morning that they believe they need to survive the workday, or a $2 soft drink to go with their $5 meal.

I live in the United States, so I'm coming from the perspective of someone who lives and grew up in a first world country. I've been guilty of the same things that I'm calling others out for right now. Hell, I'm still guilty of it from time to time, but it's not lost on me that I'm gulping down potential "seed money."

These are the thoughts that keep me up at night.

Let's take what used to be an average Monday for me, I get up for work and I'm running late so I decide to stop at McDonald's and get a quick and easy breakfast--I'd probably pay $4-5 for a medium combo meal with a drink. Then, I may stop at the gas station to buy a soda or sports drink for $2-3 to get me through the workday, sometime around lunch then I'll take my break and go out for another meal at a fast food joint, another $6-7 for a medium lunchtime combo meal with a drink.

Did I ever stop to think how much I had spent that day? I've already spent somewhere around $15. If I were making $10 an hour, then I've already spent 1.5hrs worth of my earned income for the day--more, once you consider that I'm not actually going to be paid for $10 an hour anyway once taxes are considered.

If you look at it post-tax, then I've actually just wasted almost 2.5hrs out of what is probably an 8hr workday to just pay for overpriced conveniences. Does this seem smart? No. Not at all. It's insane. Especially, once you consider that I'm probably looking at needing to make another $26 just to keep a roof over my head and pay the utility costs with minimal luxuries such as water, electricity, streaming television through an app, and basic internet.

We could all manage to live with less, but so many people fail to see it. We've all grown up and been accustomed to these luxuries, and many of our parents made better money than we do. We're trying to live as we always have, yet we can't seem to look around and see how much we're killing any potential future gain.

If we just take that $15/day that we're spending, multiply by 5 days per week, then we're looking at $75 per week or $300 per month. Go one step further, take the $300 and multiply by 12 months and we're looking at $3600 per year. Take that same figure, multiply by 10 years and you have $36,000!

What if you instead took that $300 per month and invested the money into a retirement account earning 12% per year (minus 2% for inflation)?

Head over to Investor.gov and plug the numbers in and you'll end up with a figure of a little more than $57,000 in 10 years--now, that's not astronomical, but it's more than $36,000. AND, it's just from foregoing your overpriced breakfast, your soft drink/sports drink/tea, and an overpriced lunch!!

What if you instead packed your lunch? What if you drank the more healthy option of water?

To take it even further, what if you could cut your costs and increase your investments in other ways? What if you didn't have cable television? What if you didn't have your top-of-the-line smartphone? What if you biked to work rather than spent so much effort in keeping up a vehicle and paying for vehicle ownership?

Too many luxuries have become standard. Too many people have forgot about the power of investment, the idea of letting your money work for you, and completely ignored the potential power of compounding interest.

We all sit around like a bunch of idiots selling or eating our seeds, rather than planting those seeds and waiting to reap the benefits of the harvest.