Transcription
Here's a quick list of nine things that are a complete waste of your money, especially if you're trying to build some wealth.
Now, the first thing is designer clothes or expensive name-brand clothes. Look, I know you want to look good. That's cool. We all want to look good, but don't look so good today that you forfeit the future expenses that you have, right? You look real good today, but can you take care of your future rent? You look real good today, but can you take care of your future grocery bill? It's just not worth it to wear a name brand when a lot of the money that you spend on that name brand could be going towards your future wealth, or your future health, or your future independence and freedom, right?
Now, I'm not talking about the millionaire person that may be watching this video, or you have an $800,000 net worth. This is probably not for you because at that point, you can kind of buy what you want to buy. But I'm talking to the person who is trying to build some wealth and trying to get better with their money and simply don't like where they are right now with money. If you have one or two or three pairs of Nike shoes, okay, no big deal, right? But if you only buy red bottom shoes, or you only decide to buy Gucci and Prada and some of these expensive name brands because you want to show them off to other people, that's a complete waste of money.
Look, if you're watching this and you know somebody who only buys name brand, but they really can't afford the name brand, let me know in the comments below. But don't say any names, right? Just drop that comment.
Now, the second thing that's a complete waste of your money is overpriced tech gadgets and tech upgrades, right? Buying the latest smartphone, or the latest accessory, or the latest gadget every single year, right? That's unjustified because it really doesn't offer any significant upgrades from the previous version, right? You got the 2.0 version from two years ago that's working just fine and doing everything you need to do, but you got to get the latest 4.0 version to make sure that you are have the latest up-to-date whatever. Hey, if the thing does everything that you needed to do, stick with it. Why upgrade? And you don't have to convince yourself, yourself, that you need an upgrade just to have the newest, latest $2,000 gadget when the one that you have works just fine. We're talking cell phones, tablets, laptops, and all that good stuff. You don't have to upgrade because they put out a new model and tell you that you need an upgrade.
Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of times they put out the new model that has a significant upgrade in the features to entice you to go buy it, but if you don't need it, just stay pat right where you at.
Now, this third thing is a complete waste of money. It's credit card interest charges. Look, it's extremely expensive to carry a credit card balance, especially if you're only making these minimum payments. Here's what a lot of people don't really realize: the interest that you pay on credit cards, it compounds. This means you end up paying interest on top of interest, which grows the debt you owe on that credit card exponentially, right? Really fast because you're compounding the interest that you owe, right? So this money that you're spending on credit card interest, it could be used to pay off debt. It could be used to invest and grow the money. It could be used for saving the money for big-ticket items. Look, there's a lot of meaningful purposes for this interest that you're paying on a credit card, and this interest can be entirely avoided if you just pay the credit card balance before it's due every month, or if you don't use credit cards at all. And you may be saying, "Well, I want my credit card points, right? The awards and bonuses that they offer. I want those points." But listen, if you're paying credit card interest, you're really just sort of negating the money that you save from those points. So, in my opinion, guys, credit card interest is a complete waste of money.
Now, the fourth waste of money is these unused subscriptions that a lot of us have. We're talking from streaming services to gym memberships, or whatever it could be. Unused subscriptions drain your finances in a real subtle way, so you almost don't even realize it. So regularly see what you got and cancel what you don't use in terms of subscriptions. So if you don't use it enough to justify the $3.99 per month charge, or the $14.99 charge, you need to get rid of it. Sometimes all you really need, based on your usage, is the free version of whatever they offer, right? You don't need that extra premium service. And services because you don't use them anyway. But a lot of people don't assess that regularly. They got it three years ago, and there's $9.99 coming out of your checking account every single month, and you don't even realize it. It just's been happening for years and years and years, and it's worth cleaning this up. It could save you $50, $100. A recent survey that I read said that people can save an average of $70 a month if they clean up the old subscription services that they don't use. Look, $70 a month is $840 a year. Over the course of 10 years, that's $8,400.
Now, I'm not saying that's a whole lot of money, but it's something. At some point, we all got to learn how to save more money by spending less money. We can't do anything about a lot of things around us, but we can certainly do something about the things that we decide to spend our money on, our expenses. We got complete control over that. So that means you got complete control over these subscriptions.
Now, the fifth thing that's a complete waste of money is lottery tickets. While, listen, I know the dream is enticing. We sit around and we think about, "What would you do if you won a million dollars? What would you do if you won $10 million?" Right? We have these conversations dreaming about winning the lottery. I get it. But in the end, when it's all said and done, at the end of the day, buying lottery tickets is really a waste of money. And you say, "Well, I don't buy that many. $5 or $10 a month, $5 or $10 a week, right?" That adds up, though. Some people spend a lot more. In my opinion, the lottery is a tax on the poor because if you look at the statistics, the people that put the most money into the lottery by buying the lottery tickets are typically poorer people because those are the people that want that big win. Those are the people that want more than ever that big come-up of money, right? Playing the lottery is like throwing money out the window. Listen, if you're watching this and you play the lottery by buying lottery tickets on a regular basis, more power to you. I'm not mad at you. I'm just saying, in my opinion, I think it's a complete waste of money.
Now, the sixth waste of money, and I feel like I'm going to get beat up about this one, but it's when you order food in frequently, having food delivered to you and your home, or wherever you are. Now, let me say this up first: if you have an ailment, you have a disability, or you have an injury that prevents you from getting up and going and driving to get food for yourself, or to grow food for yourself, if you have that, I'm not mad at you. I completely understand having somebody deliver food to you. But if that's not you, I don't get it. And I don't really understand having people deliver food to you if you're capable of getting up to go get it. Look, we don't grow our own food, and many of us don't even make our own food. We don't cook our own food. So if you don't grow your own food, or make your own food, and you don't cook your own food, the least you could do is get off of your behind and go buy your own food. Go get it from somewhere instead of having it delivered. Some people would rather spend $30 for a sandwich because of the extra you pay to have it delivered, plus tip, right? You pay $30 for a sandwich that you can just drive three or four or five miles away and get for $12, but you'd rather spend $30 having it delivered to you when you are an able-bodied human being, able to go get your own food, able to go grow your own food, able to actually make your own food, but you don't. You'd rather spend the extra money for convenience. And to me, I don't understand this at all. But at what point does convenience become just not worth it when you can do something for yourself, right? And when you're spending money on DoorDash and Uber Eats and all that good stuff, you're wasting a lot of extra money that could be spent elsewhere.
Guys, if you're getting any value from this video, do me a favor, smash the like button. And most of all, share this video with someone who you know could use this valuable information. Now, let's get back to the video.
Now, the seventh complete waste of money is this trendy health and fitness equipment. Look, if I go in one more person's basement and in the corner of the basement, they have unused, unplugged, never-before-turned-on exercise equipment sitting there collecting dust, I'm going to have to go off on somebody. Look, you are absolutely wasting your money on exercise gadgets that you don't use. Things like smart yoga mats, and ellipticals, and high-end treadmills, or that thing that goes on the wall that you punch at, right? I don't know what it's called. But the point is that you're wasting money on these things, right? You don't really need these things to actually be in shape or to be more healthy. Can they help? Yeah, they can help if you actually use them and drag them out the corner. But after the initial, initial excitement fades down, what are you doing? Are you actually using these things that you're buying and spending thousands of dollars on?
I got an idea, guys. If you want to be in the absolute best shape of your life, because we all know that health is wealth, all you got to do is walk 5 miles a day, do 200 to 300 squats a day, do 500 crunches a day, at least 100 push-ups a day, and then eat less, eat better, move more, and drink lots of water. Look, if you do those things, you'll be in the absolute best shape of your life. And the beauty of all those things I just mentioned, they're all free. It costs you no money to do those things, not a dime. But most people, they want to spend this money because they get all excited and happy and hyped up and motivated, and they go out and buy this elliptical that's $2,000 that they really can't afford and really won't use. Look, you don't need trendy exercise equipment that sits in the corner and collects dust. It's a complete waste of money, especially if you don't use it.
Now, the eighth complete waste of money is, hey, look, I'm going to step on some people's toes with this one, right? But the eighth complete waste of money is buying these expensive online courses, and attending these expensive weekend boot camps, or these expensive conferences, or paying somebody $20,000 to have a one-on-one consultation with them. Look, no, no, no, and no. This promise of self-improvement, and this promise of making more money, or increasing your business, or some type of personal growth. All those things can lead to overspending on things that you really don't have to overspend on. Look, I get it. I want you to grow, right? But I want you to focus on a few inexpensive, high-quality resources, and then actually apply what you learn from those few inexpensive, high-quality resources to get to where you want to go. Nine times out of 10, guys, you can get the same information that you would have got at that $20,000 conference. You can get that same information for free, or for a fraction of the cost. And I know the marketing and the pitching and how they lure you in and entice you. I know it's very strong. They pull on your emotions, they tell you a good story, and they get you wrapped in and roped in to this expensive offer that they have, or challenge that they have. I mean, these pitches are well-tested and designed to get you to spend a whole bunch of money that you may not even have.
Look, I know people who have went to weekend boot camps, or spent some one-on-one time with somebody's people on a yacht for $50,000 and $70,000, and they went into debt to do it. They swiped it on a credit card, right? That's a complete waste of your money. Your job is to resist that. Stop spending $20,000, $30,000, and $50,000 on somebody's coaching. Like I said, I'm going to get pushback, but I'm okay. I can take the pushback. I'm telling you the real. It's not necessary. It's a complete waste of money to go get that $10,000 online course, or that $20,000 online course. You just don't need it. Please, I'm trying to talk some of you who are watching this off the ledge as we speak. You're thinking about it right now. Don't do it.
Now, the ninth thing that's a complete waste of money is a brand new car. Look, buying a brand new car when a slightly used three or four-year-old car will do will save you tons of money. Look, a new car loses 20 to 30% of its value in the first year, and it loses up to 50% of its value in the first four or five years. This means when you buy a brand new car, you're really just paying a premium for something that's ultimately and very quickly going to go down in value and become quickly worth a whole lot less than what you paid for it. So that money that you spend for that premium could be used somewhere else, investing, saving, or buying other assets that are going up in value where you can make that money grow instead of losing money. Buying a slightly used car, where you allow someone else to take the hit of the depreciation in the first year or two, is usually a far better financial value for most of us, while at the same time, a two or three-year-old car still offers lots of reliability and lots of quality.
So, I don't like to leave a video without giving you some things that you can do to get better. How do you get better at this? You track your spending. You budget your money monthly, written down. You can wait before buying something instead of making an emotional, impulsive decision to buy something. If it's a non-essential thing that you don't need right away, try using the 30-day rule, where you wait 30 days before you actually make the purchase to see if you still want it. Check your subscriptions, all of them, and get rid of what you don't use. Live below your means, and simply be intentional about how you're spending your money so that every time you spend money on a non-essential item that's not a need, you assess it through this lens of, "Is it a waste of my money?"
Hey, that's the nine things that are a complete waste of your money. Guys, do me a favor, please share this video with your network of good people and smash that like button below. And check out this video right here where I talk about the five types of people you need to avoid on your wealth-building journey. These are the people who will gladly help you ruin your financial life. Until the next video, peace.