Each week most people spend quite a bit of money on small items they may not even recall once the week has gone by. This calculator shows the potential impact of saving that money instead.

As an example, imagine that you purchase the following items on a regular basis:

• One pack of cigarettes, $7.40 each week.
• Two cups of coffee each day, $12.00 each week.
• Lottery tickets, $3.00 each week.
• Buying sandwiches at work every day and eating one meal out per week, for a total of $45.00 each week.
• Two magazines for a total of $10.50 each week.

This adds up to $77.90 per week, in what many would consider discretionary and non-essential expenditures. Over the course of 35 working years, this adds up to the non-trivial sum of $77.90 x 52 x 35 = $141,778.

However, if you avoid these expenses entirely, and save the money instead - say at a reasonable long-term rate of 8.5%-- you will have saved close to a million dollars when you retire. You will actually have $883,651 to be precise.

Enter the figures that approximate your spending habits and feel free to change the expected investment return from the assumed 8.5% to see the impact of a higher or lower interest rate on the value of your long-term savings.

You can actually afford many more cups of coffee and lottery tickets in the future, if you sacrifice some of them today. For example, if over the course of a working life (35 years) you forgo the pleasure of a pack of cigarettes per week, you would be able to afford 10 packs a week once you retire. (This is assuming your smoking habit doesn't kill you before retirement.)

Notice the impact of inflation on the expected cost of the item in the future. The greater the inflation rate, the LESS you will be able to afford later on, since your savings will be growing at a lower inflation-adjusted (a.k.a. real) rate.