Both should be "coffee" and "saving" - not $5 coffee and maybe saving. In other words, if you figure out how much you need to retire at the lifestyle you want, in the time frame you want, and put the money into your investments (retirement, brokerage, etc) and then pay all your bills and then you have $5/day to spend on coffee, go to town. If, instead, you spend $5/day on coffee, pay your bills, and don't have any money left over each month, so you skimp on your retirement contributions, you've lost control of when and how you retire.
The end goal for any conscious saver is not "the most money at the end of your life" but almost certainly something more meaningful and useful. Retirement when and how you want! Having retirement accumulate faster such that you have enough to retire when you're 55 instead of 65 means 10 years of meaningful autonomy over your life. Of course that probably isn't possible if $5 coffees interrupt your retirement plans entirely. There's a spectrum of incomes, cost of living and what your optional spending looks like.
The math seemed pretty compelling. Even $100/month invested in index funds returns several hundred thousand after a few decades (or the typical working career.)
Should you ONLY skip daily lattes but living beyond your means otherwise? Of course not! But it's just one of many places to start making changes in your life towards the things that really matter to you.
The end goal for any conscious saver is not "the most money at the end of your life" but almost certainly something more meaningful and useful. Retirement when and how you want! Having retirement accumulate faster such that you have enough to retire when you're 55 instead of 65 means 10 years of meaningful autonomy over your life. Of course that probably isn't possible if $5 coffees interrupt your retirement plans entirely. There's a spectrum of incomes, cost of living and what your optional spending looks like.