Coffee is easy to defend because it feels small. It's a few dollars, part of a routine, and gone before anyone has time to think twice. That's why billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban keeps using it as a money example.

Speaking on content creator Jules Terpak's YouTube channel last year, Cuban revisited a point he knows frustrates people. Skip the daily latte and redirect that money instead.

"I did a thing on TikTok where I said don't get that latte," Cuban said. "Take that $6 or $8 or $10 depending on where you live and put it in a money market account."

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He said the reaction was predictable.

"People were like you're killing people's experience, you're killing people's joy," Cuban told Terpak. His response was blunt. "I'm like okay, it's up to you. I'm just putting an option out there."

That option is where the debate actually lives. Not everyone wants to choose between enjoyment and responsibility. Most people want both. The question is whether the tradeoff is being made consciously or just by default.

Take a $7 latte. One a day adds up to about $2,555 over a year. Stretch that habit over five years and the total is roughly $12,775 before any interest. Put that same money into a money market account instead and the balance grows further, without market swings or complicated timing. It doesn't require extreme discipline. Just consistency.

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That's the part Cuban keeps coming back to. Not the coffee itself, but what happens when small decisions repeat quietly.

"If you want that joy of that latte and when it's gone, great," Cuban told Terpak. "But if you want that pain of not having any money in the bank because you had those lattes and years, five years from now you're looking back and going ‘that was a really good latte, I'm glad I'm broke,' or would you rather be okay, you know, I've got a couple thousand dollars in the bank and that gives me options."

Options are the real currency here. And for people who don't want an all-or-nothing choice, there are ways to split the difference.

One approach is cutting back rather than cutting out. Fewer lattes, not zero. Another is pairing spending with investing. If daily coffee stays, money still needs a job somewhere else. That's where passive income comes in.

Platforms like Arrived let people invest in income-producing real estate without buying or managing property directly. Instead of choosing between small pleasures and long-term stability, some people use tools like that to build cash flow alongside everyday life. It's not about replacing coffee. It's about offsetting it.

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The same logic Cuban applies to lattes applies to other habits too. Driving a less expensive car and investing the difference. Reducing convenience spending and redirecting part of it. Finding ways to earn or invest that don't require giving up everything enjoyable.

Cuban's point isn't deprivation. It's awareness.

"When you look back in five years," he told Terpak, "what are you going to appreciate more, the money in the bank or the coffee you drank."

For some people, the answer will still be the coffee. For others, it's the flexibility that money buys. The real mistake, Cuban argues, is never stopping to ask the question at all.

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