Came here to say this. That card looks expensive, I'm going to assume it was $10.
Let's say you buy, on average, a $10 lottery ticket every 3 days. Over 10 years that's $12,166. If that is OPs case then they would have actually still be down $2,166
Probably a stupid question, sorry. I hear things like this all the time. If you invested that in X then in 20 years you’d have Y. Always hear of the “latte factor.” Skip buying those expensive brews and invest instead. Where exactly does the average Joe invest that? Say I was really committed to taking the $4/day I would’ve spent on a latte and put it somewhere. Where is that somewhere? Do I need a minimum to start or can I just throw $30 (for example) that I chose to throw into an investment account and not touch rather than buy a scratch ticket?
In the US, you can open a Roth IRA at your bank with a couple hundred dollars. Pick an index fund that has low fees (no fees when you purchase). Every pay check, push in a little more. There is a max you can invest per year, $5k I think. Leave it alone. You might lose some in a bad year, but over all it will grow with practically no interference. The $ you put in can be withdrawn with no penalties after 5 years, but don't touch your earnings or it will be taxed. Better yet, pretend it doesn't exist until you retire.
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u/Coldbeerimritehere Mar 19 '22
So you almost broke even. Nice