Dear David,

Here is one latte factor that too many people bypass, mostly out of fear. The home-done haircut. Since I was never satisfied with my haircuts that I paid professionals to do I decided I couldn’t lose by trying it at home. I browsed the local library and found a hair cutting guidebook with pictures. I literally held up the book in front of me while my 13 year old daughter started cutting following their diagrams. I not only thought my haircut was good enough when she was done – I thought it was great. The real proof of this is the number of compliments I receive. Sometimes more than one compliment per day on how much someone likes my haircut. They often also want to know who cuts it so they can go get their hair cut by the same “professional.” When I tell them my 13 year old daughter cuts my hair they are shocked. When I tell them she learned on me by using a library book their eyes glaze over. Now she is 15 and I have her also highlight my hair. I also am not lying when I say she does a better job than the professional who I paid $80 to – but I only paid that one time before I said never again. It costs me $8.64 for a box of highlight and my daughter doesn’t even mess with foil or special wraps. She simply drags it through my hair on an applicator that was part of the kit and waits 45 minutes. Again I have had coworkers tell me that they like my hair highlights better now than the first time I had them done (which was by a professional). They don’t know it is my 15 year old daughter who is doing a better job than a professional. I am just glad I didn’t let fear steal these savings from me. Also my husband refused to let me cut his hair until he saw what a great job my daughter did with mine. Now I cut his. We save $32 per month combined on haircuts which is $384 per year. Add in another $285.44 per year on highlighting savings. That comes to $669.44 per year. My daughter already was beating us both on savings because she has natural long blonde hair and rarely gets her hair cut. Anyway in 10 years at this savings rate I tell my husband we will have saved $6694.40. That doesn’t include the interest made on the mutual fund we are investing it in. I want to tell you I stumbled upon your book on audiotape, Start Late, Finish Rich at the local library and am loving it. My latte factor savings today is $29.60. I can’t wait until tomorrow! Thanks.