1. If you saved instead of spending $5,000 on a wrist-watch at age twenty-seven, you'd have $263,781 by age sixty-five.

2. If you saved instead of bought a dollar a day in lottery tickets starting at age eighteen, you'd have $579,945 by the time you reached retirement age.

3. If you avoided credit card interest charges from adulthood to retirement age, you'd save $1,606,404 (based on $1,440 annual interest charged on an average credit card balance of $8,000).

4. If you saved instead of spent $5 a day on junk food, cigarettes or booze from age twenty-one to age sixty-five, you'd have an extra $2,080,121.

5. If you bought instead of renting a home, at an average of $1,000 a month, you'd save $13,386,696 from age twenty-one to age sixty-five.