Starbucks Introduces Breakfast Value Meal

Interesting. What will the value meal contain I wonder?

The value meal contains a coffee and a breakfast sandwich such as an english muffin with egg and cheese.

Interesting. Guess they have to do something when they have so many stores next to McDonald's and McDonald' has lattes now.

Since this is a money column, here's something interesting: Two people are used as example. One buys Starbucks Value Meal and pays $4.50 ($3.95 + sales tax) five times a week from 25 until 65, and the price rises at the rate of 3% each year. The second person wants the meal, but instead chooses to save the money she would have used to purchase the meal from age 25 until 65 into an investment inside a Roth IRA that grows at 12% a year. The net balance for the investment at age 65 is almost $1.5 million.

I realize no one is going to save $4.50 five times a week, but the example of compounding interest is a weapon of math destruction.

Interesting, Jeff.

I digress. I was talking to a high schooler the other day with the same argument but smoking a pack of cigarette at $3.80 a pack, 7 days a week, and the price rises at the rate of 3% each year. If instead he instead chooses to save the money he would have used to purchase the pack from age 18 until 72 into an investment inside a Roth IRA that grows at 12% a year. The net balance for the investment at age 72 is $9,552,365 (THAT'S $9.5 MILLION!) tax free!!!

The chances are, the cigarette smoker may not live that long.

I have also posted my free personal finance advices elsewhere on gather.com. I suggest searching for key phrases at gather.com (include the quotes):

"Personal finance Topic"
"Interesting Statistics on Personal Finance"
"I found some money in my wallet"
"Insane financial practices"
"Jeff's Editorial"
"Jeff's Stupid Topic"
"Taking Control of Your Taxes"

RE: a 70 percent decline from the same quarter a year ago.

Wow. Veronica, thank you for bringing us this news.