'Would you like a drink with your order?'

'Yes, just water with lemon please'...

This simple decision, multiplied over your life, has a chance to add up to over one million dollars!

So how do we come to this calculation?  Certainly some assumptions had to be made.  We started the calculation at the age of 16.  At 16 comes freedom to drive a car, get your first job, and spend your own money.  With this freedom also comes fast food trips with the obligatory carbonate drink (or combo meal).  On the other side of the equation, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average life expectancy is 77.9 years.  We'll just round that up for our purposes to 78 years.

Now, lets assume that every day of your life, you have the opportunity to order at least 1 carbonated soft drink a day (either at lunch or dinner).  In addition, perhaps you have the opportunity to drink them at your leisure while at home or at work.  Lets assume, you have the opportunity to spend $2 per day on carbonated beverages, but instead decide to drink water (tap not bottled of course) for free. 

So, lets assume you take that money and put that to work for you.  In addition, you are a decent investor with good dicipline and make a respectable, but certainly achievable 7.5%.  Take this $2 per day, compound it monthly over 63 years, and you would have $1,057,038.

Little things add up quickly cheap momma....