How much do you really need?

While talking with a couple of friends we got on the topic of how much money would be enough to quit our day jobs. Would $50/day be enough? Maybe $100/day? For me, I figure it would be somewhere in the middle, but then I got thinking. We were only looking at one side of the coin so to speak. The other side is our monthly expenses. It is truly amazing how much money we spend without even thinking about it. Take my Starbucks addiction for example.

Our daily trips to Starbucks or even eating out a couple of times a week are all major drains on the old pocketbook. If we want to quit, we will need to watch our expenses more closely. Let’s take my morning coffee for example; my morning venti caramel macchiato costs $5.14 ($4.80 + tax). It is a reward I give myself for getting my ass out of bed and making it to work, and while it does not seem like much, when we total it up weekly (~$25.70) or monthly (~$111) it really adds up. My daily caffeine fix costs about $1336 a year! So if I was willing to give it up, I would need less money to live on and I might only need $72.00/day instead of the $75.00 I originally figured.

You need to ask yourself two questions. How much do I really need, and what am I willing to give up to achieve my goal? Once you do that you might realize that your goal is close then you thought.