Disclaimer: This is a parody of https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/suze-orman-spending-money-on-coffee-is-like-throwing-1-million-down-the-drain.html.
Take anything I say in this article with a grain of salt, and the numbers are sometimes rounded sometimes not depending on my mood when I was calculating :).
All these prices/nutrition facts will be based on the independent city market website
As I am slightly larger than average, 6 feet ~200 pounds, I tend to eat more than people around me. This got me thinking, maybe if I just starve myself I could lose weight and make a few million dollars!
According to this calorie calculator and myfitnesspal I need to eat around 2300 calories to maintain my weight with little to no exercise. With light exercise 1-3 times a week this gets bumped up to 2700 calories a day. Considering that I have been at my current weight for a while I likely am eating close to 2700 calories a day.
A survey done in 2012 suggested that the average North American weights 178 pounds (I believe this stat is across both sexes). Using the same calculator + activity level the average North American eats about 2500 calories a day. So typically I eat 200 calories a day more than the average North American.
This begs the question what’s the typical dollar value of a calorie?
If I just guzzle canola oil, I will need to eat/drink an extra ~25ml of oil.
Which at my local supermarket will cost me a whole 0.05825$ extra a day. Given I am approaching 22 years and assuming I keep up this consumption to my late 70s. I would spend an extra (0.05825$ * 365 * (70 - 22)) = 1020.54$.
As one could expect a pure canola oil diet isn’t likely to keep me alive for a long time… So lets take a look at prices for some premade meals.
I have seen some good looking ham/cheese baguettes.
To round off the meal we can add a nice garden salad.
If I add an extra 100 calories from the sandwich and the salad I would be spending an extra 4$ a day (1.25$ a day from the sandwich and 2.82$ from the salad). Which would be (4$ * 365 * (70 - 22)) = 71264$ by the time I am 70 or 1484$ a year.
Now this is not a million dollars but lets see what happens when we invest those savings with a return of 10% and let the magic compounding go to work.
Given that we have an income of 1484$/year and an annual return of 10% we get a simple recursive equation.
f(0) = 0, f(1) = 1484 f(x) = f(x - 1) * 1.1 + 1484
And BOOM! over 1 million dollars in 48 years if I just start eating less now.
But why should I stop at eating 2500 calories a day. If dropping 200 calories got me a million dollars why don’t I drop 1000 calories and really start raking in the cash. Or I can just stop eating at all, just have vitamin gummy bears and water. Next self made billionaire here I come!
Heres a small little calculator that will show you how much money you can save by starving yourself!