The Latte Factor

The Latte Factor teaches us how to overcome limiting beliefs about money and build our financial freedom through small daily choices.

Like many of us, Zoey feels stuck on an endless treadmill where, no matter how hard she works, she never has enough money to do what she loves.

She’s a 27-year-old Brooklynite who has a well-paid job at a travel magazine. Nevertheless, Zoey is drowning under the increasing load of student loan and credit card debts. She has two big dreams: traveling and taking a photography course, but she believes she can’t afford to realize any of them.

On her daily commute, Zoey always stops by a local café to drink a latte. One Monday, she notices a photo on the wall which shows a little Greek fishermen village. This picture has something that calls her and she would like to hang it in her own living room. It’s even for sale, but there’s a problem: it costs €1200, way too much for her.

An elderly barista seems to read her mind. He’s Henry, who will turn out to be the owner of the café and a traveler, who has taken the picture himself. He will introduce her to the Latte Factor: to get able to pay for what she cares for, she just needs to save daily amounts as small as the cost of her latte. Small savings can add up to a fortune if you invest them constantly.

Over the next days, Henry will explain to Zoey how she can make it sustainable in the long term and start living a richer life in a short time.

Zoey is going to learn about personal finance even from her own boss. Barbara teaches her to change her mindset about money first, by overcoming the Three Myths of Money: Make more money and you’ll be rich. It takes money to make money. Someone else will take care of you. Most of the people who experience a lack of money haven’t really got an income problem: they have a spending problem. Barbara explains how she saves $15 daily by bringing her own lunch to work instead of eating out. In fact, the first step to improving your financial situation is changing your habits, otherwise, your financial problems are going to grow together with your income. Another false belief is that only rich people can invest and make money out of money. But you can start by saving as little as $5 a day and invest them in the stock market. Since we have data, it’s been growing at an average rate of 10%, so even the most conservative portfolio is likely to earn you about 8% per year. Most people…