The Grateful Dead comes on in Andy Cohen's apartment around 7 a.m. Then the tea. Two bags of Yorkshire Gold go into a mug, and that's only round one. After he drops his kids at school, he stops at one of three Starbucks for a large English breakfast tea. A large there comes with two fat tea bags. He's 58, he's spent 20 years running "The Real Housewives" for Bravo, and he says he always knows what he's spending his money on.
The Journal's My Monday Morning column asked Cohen about his routine, timed to a new book of behind-the-scenes photos from the show. His kids are his alarm clock, usually sometime after 6:30. A producer from his SiriusXM radio show brings a scooped-out onion bagel with egg whites from a shop on 49th Street. He works out with a trainer three to five days a week, usually four. His friendship with Anderson Cooper, he says, has gotten a little more boring since they both became fathers. They talk about kids now.
The one habit he'd never pick up
The column's best moment comes near the end, when it asks where he likes to save. He wouldn't pay to have a shake delivered, he said. His rule is to know where every dollar goes. That's a man with a big TV paycheck saying no to a delivery markup. The other line worth keeping came from his friend Liza Persky, advice he says he passes along all the time. "Only go as far as you can see." When things feel overwhelming, he says, it means you take them one step at a time.
There's lighter stuff too. His hair advice for men is simple. If you're losing it, shave it. If you still have it, let it grow. And after 20 years of running reunion fights, his tip for the rest of us is that people want to be heard. Listen, acknowledge what they said, and own something yourself. It works at a kitchen table as well as on a soundstage.
Our read
This is a Cash Flow story, and the lesson is in the shake. Nobody goes broke on one delivery fee. People go broke on forty of them a month that they never see as a group. Delivery markups, service fees, tips on top of fees, a subscription that renews, the second coffee stop. Each one is small enough to wave through. Together they're the leak in most budgets we see, and the one people argue with us about the hardest. Cohen's rule is better than any app. Know what you're spending on. Not roughly, and not in theory. Starbucks (SBUX) is held at weight in 6 books; nothing added. We like the company fine. We just like the customer who knows what the large tea costs even more.
Here's the connection to your own plan. Open the two or three apps you order through most and look at last month's receipts. Add up only the fees, the service charges and the delivery markups. Leave the food out. That figure is the shake. Most people are surprised by it. Then take Persky's line as a planning rule. Build the plan only as far as you can see, which for most households is the next twelve months, and revisit it when you get there. If you want help finding the leaks, bring that fee total to us and we'll look at it together. You don't need to see the whole road to fix a leak you can see today.