This graph is not to say that cord cutting, coffee at home, or coupon clipping are bad things.
Actually, coupon clipping might be a terrible way to spend your time if it does not yield a proportionally profitable result.
Spending two hours seeking and clipping coupons to save $3 would be a disastrous use of your time, unless, of course, you enjoy clipping coupons more than time spent visiting friends, walking in nature, or even watching reruns of Law & Order.
And if you do, no judgment. I believe in making relentlessly thoughtful choices about how we spend our time. If you can look back on your life and be content with the time spent clipping coupons, then it was time well spent.
But making coffee at home does not require any more time than coffee purchased at a coffee shop (in fact, it probably saves time), so go right ahead and save that money.
And cord-cutting might require an initial investment of time and money, but it will continue to yield financial returns month after month, so go right ahead and cut that cord.
We did, and we couldn’t be happier.
But these are tiny ways to improve your net worth, as this chart rightly demonstrates.
Investing in yourself, expanding the boundaries of your life into new and uncharted realms, and building your circle of meaningful contacts are always the best and most profitable means of increasing your net worth.
They are also very likely to make you the happiest.
In the end, net worth is a lot less about the money saved over the course of your life and a lot more about the investments that you make in yourself and your earning potential.
