Kevin O’Leary tells people not to waste $28 a day on lunch.
He is immediately scorned because, the people who are struggling complain, then produce excuses as to why they need those $28 lunches. Do the math:
If you go out to lunch at $28 a day every workday, that works out to $560 per month in lunches. What if you had brown bagged it every day instead? That could easily free up $350 per month that could be invested. In an index fund at 9% per year, that adds up.
- In 10 years, it would be worth $67,000
- 20 years, $233,000
- 30 years, $640,000
- and at 35 years, you would break a million
Or you can keep going out and spending $28 a day on lunch, $5 on a Starbucks every morning, and complaining about how you are still broke and blaming “boomers” for the fact that you can’t afford to buy a house.
10 Comments
ghostsniper · May 19, 2026 at 6:49 am
In 1986 us 2 31 year olds bought our first house for $34k and it was a 30 year old dump but only required $4k down. 2 BR, 1 Bath, 1 car carport, We lived there 3 years, fixed it up a little, sold it for about $8k profit and moved up a notch. Did that 4 more times since and last year we made the last payment.
It was never easy, it was always a risk, we had no help, and I have never had a $28 meal of any sort.
I come from a time where people avoided complainers because they bring everyone else down and distract from the goal. Now they are lauded and put on a pedestal.
Henry · May 19, 2026 at 8:08 am
I watch hourly clerical employees at our local hospital (75 bed) have Doordash deliver lunch and shake my head at the amount they could be saving just by brown-bagging their lunches. Kevin and DM are absolutely right. Our society could use a little more of the Depression-era mentality of my parents: live frugally, don’t buy on credit, save for a rainy day.
Divemedic · May 19, 2026 at 8:24 am
n my case, I ordered Doordash almost every day while I was at my last hospital. It cost me between $20-30 a day. It made sense in my case.
– We were quite busy and usually didn’t get time for a full on lunch
– Even so, I was making enough money that doordashing and eating on the clock was more profitable than clocking out to eat
– the cafeteria in the hospital was only open from 11-1 and from 4-6. if you couldn’t get away during those times, you were out of luck
– the refrigerator in the break room was disgusting.
So I ordered door dash.
Steve · May 19, 2026 at 10:07 am
At my first professional employer, I was brown-bagging, the other new guy was going out, including a vodka gimlet on Fridays. I talked him into brown-bagging and investing the savings, like I was doing. I even gave him my broker’s name, and asked him to cut the same deal he did for me. He kept at it for a few years after I left.
Ran into him a couple months ago when I was back in town. Yeah, same old watering hole. Same spot at the bar, but new barstools. We got to talking and he told me one of his biggest mistakes was stopping the investing. It was now worth more than he made in a year. I didn’t tell him that it was worth less than I paid the Feds last year. No, not because of that, or at least that alone, but if you have 30 years, it’s pretty easy to amass a pile of cash.
Zarba · May 19, 2026 at 2:41 pm
I’ve brown-bagged my lunch for more than 40 years. The savings helped (in a small but meaningful way) pay for my kids private schools and college so they could graduate with no debt. It will also allow me to retire in a couple years.
I see co-workers who make less than half my pay spending $10-20/day on lunch and coffee. They don’t want to knw how much they’re spending. Add in their 84 month cars loans, student debt, and rent, and they can’t figure out why they’re broke.
Divemedic · May 19, 2026 at 5:18 pm
Don’t forget the nurses who go out and get false eyelashes, hair, and nails done every week. They are spending several hundred bucks a week on that stuff, then they complain that they are broke. Starting pay for an ED nurse with only an AS in nursing and no experience is $70k a year ($34 an hour plus a $10k sign on bonus and a 10% shift differential for working weekends or evenings, 15% for night shift) That’s to START. Add it all up, and a 21 year old nurse is pulling down $80k to start, and within a couple of years, they get a BSN and are making six figures. They still complain about being broke. It isn’t an earning problem, it’s a spending problem.
YourAverageJoe · May 20, 2026 at 8:59 pm
My bank started categorizing my credit card purchases and makes a nice pie chart of where my money goes, which does make me more conscious of my spending habits
Thats why liquor and guns/ammo are strictly cash purchases going forward
J J · May 19, 2026 at 7:12 pm
Overspending your resources has become the American way of life. When I see heavily tattooed and multi pierced people guzzling Starbucks while smoking or vaping, complaining about how they don’t make a “living wage” I just roll my eyes and walk away. You can’t reason with people anymore.
Brown bagging lunch was a way of life for me with a young family. It’s what I could afford to do for myself. For years I also took my own coffee to work when the company decided that providing employees coffee was too expensive and started doing payroll deductions if you wanted to drink the office coffee.
C · May 23, 2026 at 12:05 am
Boomers still had a hand in wrecking the country. The retarded young people are setting what’s left of the country on fire. It’s hilarious watching those young people self sabotage. They want cheap housing and cost of living all while:
Supporting the importation of millions of third world savages.
Trying to vote for free gibs from the government which impoverishes them further.
Pissing their money away to mega corps who wish place them into indentured servitude.
Turning higher education into adult daycare and being stupid enough to get the government involved in payment.
I’ll give the boomers credit though. At least some of them tried to set things back right or delay the crash. For that I am grateful.
As to the rest who gutted the industry that made this country a world power and imported millions of foreigners just to save a few bucks. I hope the fires of are well stoked and burning hot. They’ll be getting younger cohabitants soon enough.
Divemedic · May 23, 2026 at 9:57 am
The market demanded that.
American car makers lost ground to Japanese manufacturers because the unions demanded $100k a year and a lifetime pension for driving a forklift. The ublic began buying the cheaper, higher efficiency Japanese cars.
A company like WalMart comes along and is able to offer lower prices by selling Chinese made crap. The public buys it. In order to compete, every other store has to either match those prices or be pushed out of the market.
Amazon came along and did it even better, pushing many companies out. Companies like Circuit City, K Mart, Montgomery Ward’s, JC Penney’s, Zayre’s, all gone.
It wasn’t Boomers- it’s what the market wanted.
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