How we spend our money shapes our lives, and sometimes a simple cup of coffee can point us toward a richer, more meaningful way to live.
As we wrap up our #FeBREWary series on all things java, we want to tie everything we’ve covered this month back to our 2026 focus of leading a flourishing, well-lived life. Coffee has been a fun and, hopefully, relatable way to examine a routine part of our lives that has the capacity to provide meaning and enjoyment. Whether you are a coffee connoisseur (snob) like my oldest daughter, drink it for the caffeine rush, or skip it altogether, there are some foundational lessons here about how we spend our money.
Before diving in, let me point you to a book that captures these ideas more clearly and in far more depth than I can. The Art of Spending Money; Simple Choices for a Richer Life by Morgan Housel is the follow up to his bestselling book on growing wealth, The Psychology of Money; Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness. In this new book, he explores how to spend money in ways that create meaning. My best attempt at a one sentence summary: spending your wealth on things that provide long-term contentment and meaning will lead to a richer life than spending to impress others which will inevitably leave you cold and empty. My apologies to Mr. Housel for failing to adequately express the brilliant message of his book. Please go read it anyway.
As for being a conscientious coffee consumer, I want to share a few personal experiences.
In the fall of 2022, my wife and I took our daughters and my mom to Charleston, South Carolina for a few days. My aforementioned coffee snob of a daughter always scouts out the best local coffee shops for our trips. For Charleston, she found Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, which proudly proclaims itself to be “A human rights movement disguised as a coffee shop where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are valued in the workplace.” Everything about that coffee shop was different in the most amazing way. The coffee was good, but the people were inspiring. It felt good to spend money there. There are now 14 Bitty & Beau’s Coffee shops across the U.S.
My annual trips to Guatemala over the past 15 years have also shaped how I think about spending. I’ve built friendships with local coffee growers, walked through their fields, and seen the entire process of picking, drying, and roasting the seeds of the cherries (they aren’t really beans). Unfortunately, each person can only bring 10 pounds of coffee back into the U.S. every trip. Our group always maxes out the limit and does our small part to support the farmers. It’s not just the caffeine or the flavor that feels good; it is knowing where your dollars are going.
And for those of us in Fort Worth, we have something new to look forward to. Our friends at the Presbyterian Night Shelter are working on another social enterprise called The Greater Good Collective. We are all eagerly awaiting our first cup from their Greater Grounds coffee shop.