Find your personal "latte factor" — it probably isn’t coffee

Identify the specific recurring expense that drains your budget without adding proportionate joy.

Why it works

Bach’s insight is not literally about lattes — it is about the category of spending that is automatic, invisible, and emotionally disconnected from your real priorities. For different people this is subscription sprawl, takeout frequency, unused gym memberships, or daily convenience fees. The drain is only stoppable once it is named specifically, because generic "spend less" advice doesn’t trigger any behavioral change.

How to do it

1. Review last month’s statement and highlight any category you paid for five or more times without actively deciding each time.
2. For each, rate on a scale of 1–10 how much genuine enjoyment or utility it delivered.
3. Anything below a 6 is a candidate for your personal latte factor.
4. Pick one — only one — to address this month, so the change is sustainable.

Evidence

Behavioral specificity is a key predictor of successful behavior change — vague intentions produce vague action. The practice of naming the specific target operationalizes that principle for discretionary spending. (mechanistic)

The specific rating exercise is practitioner advice; the underlying behavioral-specificity principle is supported by implementation-intention research.

Common mistake

Picking the item you feel most guilty about (often coffee, because of the cultural framing) rather than the one that actually has the lowest joy-to-cost ratio — guilt and utility are different signals.