The Personal Finance Podcast - 9 Things That Are a Complete Waste Of Money (Be Careful!)

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Join the community built to help you master your money, stay accountable, and reach financial freedom.  👉 Join Master Money Academy today! In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, Andrew reveals 9 complete wastes of money destroying wealth, from student loans and fast food to luxury cars, designer clothing, sports betting, and high-priced diamonds. Listen to The Business Show here. Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week Here! Partner Deals Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at http://Indeed.com/personalfinance Join the loyalty program for renters at joinbilt.com/PFP  Go to http://policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Thanks to Fundrise for Sponsoring the show! Invest in real estate going to http://fundrise.com/pfp   Get 50% Off Monarch, the all-in-one financial tool at http://www.monarch.com/PFP  Find your next dream home, start searching now. Download the http://Realtor.com app today DeleteMe: Go to https://joindeleteme.com/PFP20/ and Use Promo Code PFP for 20% off!   Connect With Andrew on Social Media: Instagram TikTok Twitter Master Money Website Master Money Youtube Channel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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nine things that are a complete waste of money. What's up, everybody, and welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of mastermoney.co. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to be talking about nine things that I think are a complete waste of money. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money newsletter by going to mastermoney.co slash newsletter. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube, or whatever podcast

player, you love listening to this podcast on it. If you want to hop out the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Now today, we're going to be diving into nine things that are a complete waste of money. And what you're going to notice from this list is this is a list of things that I have purchased in the past and I have done this, I have experience in buying these different things. And for most of these things on this list, a lot of them are going to come down to your money psychology. This is going to be an area where maybe for years or decades, people have been telling you, this is something you should buy, or this is something you should put your money towards, or this is something you should strive for.

But instead, a lot of this stuff I have felt are not as worth it as maybe spending your money on other things. And so you're going to see today that I'm going to talk through some of my experience with these different items or with these different things. And so today, you're going to see me talking through some of my experience with these different areas. And really, a lot of these can lead to a path that is less happy. Now, some of these are stigma. Some of these may challenge what you truly believe. And so this is something where, again, this is my opinion, but I'm going to give you the pros and cons to each and every single one of these things. And then we can dive in deeper. So I am pumped for this episode. I am excited to get into it. So without further ado,

let's get into it. All right, let's dive into number one. And number one is overpaying for college specifically with student loans. Now, I have seen a trend as of late where people are really and dramatically overpaying for college. And this isn't something that is a small problem. In fact, I see it every single day inside of folks that I help and that I coach and that I coach and that I have. work through and help them with their money, I see student loan debt is the reason why they have a crippled budget, meaning they cannot take extra dollars and put them towards wealth building because they have so much lined up in student debt. And in fact, over the course of the last couple of years, the average person borrows about $39,000 for college. And here's the thing.

The interest rate is not small for those who are borrowing money for student loans. It is about 6.4%. And many borrowers have become in real trouble, meaning about 16% of borrowers were 60 plus days late in August of 2025, and this is the latest data from the credit bureaus. And they also did a bunch of different surveys, and 42% of people said they are making tradeoffs between making sure they pay off their student loans and basic everyday needs. And so this is causing an overall problem where people are taking on too much loans. Now, I have no issue with college. I am not one of those people that says college is not worth it.

I think college gives you a baseline. What it does is it gives you a baseline earning potential, meaning that once you have your degree, there are certain jobs that you can go out and get, and it just gives you more flexibility and more opportunity. When I went to college, the number one thing that I truly learned in college was how to become an adult.

I learned how to go out and be an adult by myself and learn how to take care of myself. That's really the biggest takeaway that I took from college. Sure, you can learn a thing here or there, but in business classes or in economic classes or even in finance classes, there was not much that I took away from college. Most of the things that I learned were from real world experiences, my own self-paced education, meaning reading books all the time and understanding how the real world works. And you'll see this can be one of those areas where you really want to think about your college decision. Student loans can be anti-wealth for a number of different reasons. Now, most people out there, I want you to understand this.

I know most of you need to take out a student loan. Maybe you are not privileged enough to have family who can pay for your college. And that's where most people fall into play. So a loan has to come into play when we talk about this. But I want you to understand how this can impact your overall dollars and how long you could be paying these loans off if you're not careful. So student loans can be anti-wealth because of three different reasons. One is they lock you into a fixed monthly rate. And you are stuck paying that fixed monthly rate for years and years and years.

Number two is they will delay your wealth flywheel, meaning they will delay your opportunity to take those extra dollars and put them towards debt or invest your money or fund your emergency fund. You have a tradeoff to make when this happens. And number three is if you make a mistake on the degree that you take on or if you make a mistake on what you really are going to do, let's say, for example, you become an art major and then decide, actually, I want to go out and do something else. Well, an art major who takes on a lot of student loan debt, that is a detrimental mistake to make. So you need to make sure that your degree aligns with making money because the only reason you should be going to college is so that degree aligns

with you making good money for the rest of your life. That is where my true belief lies. If you're going to college for specific reasons or maybe to get an undergrad in something that does not make much money, that is a much harder decision or tradeoff to make. In fact, most people who are doing that, if you think you're going to make 40 to $60,000 per year, then you need to make sure that you are going to a much cheaper school. Those who go to Ivy Leagues or high degree locations and are not to make much money, that is a huge problem because you're going to be paying that off for the rest of your life and it's going to be a financial detriment to your personal finances when you become an adult. So I need you to really think through this process, especially for my listeners

who are either in college or thinking about going back to college or getting a graduate degree. All those different things matter and we need to think through this. Okay. Now let me give it an example of this. Okay. Let's take an example of Alex. And let's say Alex graduates with $60,000 in loans at a 6.4% interest rate, but ends up underemployed, which is a common early career outcome. A lot of, if news flash, it's very hard to find a job right now and new graduates are really struggling to find one. And so a standard 10-year payment on $60,000 on a 6.4% interest rate is about $678 every single month. So if Alex makes $40,000 per year, remember, my first entry-level job, I've talked about this a number of times, my first entry-level job was $30,000 per year. Now that's probably right around

this $40,000 per year number, that payment is brutal after taxes, after rent, and car insurance. Now, the opportunity cost here is this. $678 invested over the course of the next 10 years at the average rate of return is going to be worth over $124,000 in just a decade. And so the opportunity cost is there. So if you're someone trying to weigh the costs of what you should be doing when it comes to thinking about going college or you have kids who are thinking about this, this process, sometimes the cheaper option that gets paid off way faster is just so much better because of opportunity cost. And in 20 years, that'd be worth about $39,000. That is a huge difference. That's the opportunity cost of being loan poor. And so what I want you to think through is there

is common realities that could happen here. If you choose a degree where there is not a high demand for jobs and you go take on a massive amount of student debt, especially right now in 2026, when I'm recording this, when this is a situation where we don't know what AI is going to do with jobs, we don't know what's going to happen there. You need to choose wisely when you choose a major. This is going to be something that is very important going forward. And so here's my solution for everybody who's thinking about this. When you are looking at colleges, you need to buy the outcome. What do I mean by that? There are a lot of colleges out there that are just a brand. Let me give an example. Where I live in Florida, you can go to the University of Florida. You can go to

Florida State University. You can go to the University of Miami. Well, if you look at the two in-state schools, if you live in state, it is drastically cheaper to go to the University of Florida or to Florida State than it is to go to the University of Miami, which is a private school. But if you decide, oh, well, all my friends are going to Miami, but it's $80,000 per year, you will not get a better job by going to just the University of Miami. And so making that choice, you're just buying the brand. You're buying the private school. You're buying the place that your friends are going. And you're just buying the brand. where if you went to University of Florida or University of Florida State or University of South Florida

or University of Central Florida, UCF, all of these different schools are dramatically cheaper because they are in-state schools. Or let's say you want to go to out-of-state. If you want to go to an out-of-state school and pay triple the amount that you're paying for an in-state school, it better be worth it. Because if it's not and you're just doing it because you just want to get away from home and live your freedom, that, my friends, is not the way to go. And so you really need to, buy the outcome, not the brand, not the brand of school that you are looking at. You need to buy the outcome. Where is this going to get you? Is this going to get you employable skills? Will those skills be in place so that you can increase your income over time? Is this a credential the market actually pays for?

If it's an art degree, does the market actually pay for that art degree? If you're a history buff and you want to go to school for history, does the market actually pay for that? Or should you go get a degree that actually will pay more? And then if you want to go back and be a history teacher, then you can go and look into that. And is this at a price that still allows you to build wealth? Meaning that if you are paying $80,000 per year for college, it better be paying you back big time. All my med school folks, all my law school folks, again, we want to make sure that it's paying us back. And really, we do not want to get trapped. So number one, if you're thinking to this process and you're thinking through college or you're trying to teach this to your kids, one of the things that I would say is

you need to pick the career target first. So reverse engineer the cheapest possible path, because you need to understand the implications of taking on this debt, especially at these current interest rates. You need to understand what is going to happen here. Number two is you need to cap the total borrowing that you're willing to allow. See, what most people do is they go to college. And when they get into college, they're like, well, I could spend a little more on better housing. But that better housing is going to cost you a 6% interest rate over the course of the next 15 years. then maybe that's not the solution. Maybe you want to live in the dorm the first year

because that's a cheaper solution. But you want to make sure that you are thinking through and tapping borrowing. I saw way too many people in college that would just continue to take out student loans because they had no budget in place. And by the end, they were going to an in-state school and spending $50,000, $60,000,

just from borrowing too much. Over-borrowing and becoming over-leverage in college because it feels like it's free money to people is the worst decision that you can make. Number three, is I highly recommend people consider the two plus two strategy. The two plus two strategy is that you do two years at a community college locally. It's going to reduce your cost dramatically because you have two years less of costs

living at home and you go to a local community college. Or if you want to go to a community college away from home, that is completely fine, but the costs will be dramatically reduced. Then you transfer to the big state university. And when you do that, you will dramatically lower your costs and the amount of student loans that you have to take out. This is a really powerful way to make sure that you are, A, going towards the major that you actually want. How many people have actually changed their majors within the first two years?

It's a lot. And so really, you are doing that on a dime that is much less than would be if you were at college the first two years. Now, scholarships are huge. If you can get a scholarship somewhere or do some of those things, that's fantastic. But the two plus two strategy is just a great way to reduce your debt. Number four, choose the school by net price, not the sticker price. What do I mean by this? So let's look at grants.

What kind of aid is available for you? What kind of living costs are in that specific town? Because if you're going to school, again, let's use Miami as an example. If you're going to school in the middle of Miami, Miami, Miami, real estate or to rent housing in Miami is significantly more expensive than Gainesville where the University of Florida is or Tallahassee where the Florida State University is. And so again, the costs just go up more and more and more when you look at this kind of stuff. So is that a big, big difference?

living costs can matter more than tuition can overall. Most of you, if you're going to school in the big city, my wife went to school in Newark City. Her costs were dramatically higher than most people I know because she had to live in an apartment in the middle of Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan. And so this is something where when you look at this, you will see costs are going to dramatically matter. Number five is to finish fast. Way too many people slow roll their college years. And I know they're fun. They're some of the most fun years that you will ever have. I cherish my years in college. They are just amazing times where you build friendships,

and there's some amazing things that happen there. But also, understanding that that last semester that you're in college, you're kind of over it by that point in time. You're ready to move on. You're ready to get out and about and be part of the real world. And a lot of times you want to go out and make some real money. You're tired of being poor. At least that's the way I was.

Maybe I'm just crazy like that. But I wanted to get out and I was ready to go. I was ready to move on and get the ball rolling. And so for most people out there, finish as fast as you possibly can. If you can take on an extra class each semester, it can reduce your overall need to go out an additional semester where you have all those living expenses for that additional semester, where you're having to take on an additional loan of, let's say, five, seven, 10, grand, whatever it ends up being. And so this is just another

thing that you want to think through. And number six is to avoid private loans if you can. So private loans are a lot less likely where you're going to have flexibility or you're not going to have the ability to kind of figure out some of these great government plans that do come out every single year, you're not going to be able to have that flexibility. So with a private loan, those are going to be the loans that I would try to take out last. I would try to take out the in-state or the government loans first, and then the private loans would be last. And then last thing I would say is if you do choose a lower ROI major, if you become an art history major, and sorry, I'm knocking on you art majors out there right now, but the ROI is just low. That's the data. That's the math. Or if you become a major that just doesn't have a

high ROI, pair it with a paid skill plan. What I mean by that is pair it with like minor certifications for your portfolio that can help you earn more or internships that can help you earn more or a job pipeline before graduation. Why? Because your major doesn't always matter anymore. What does matter though is some of your experience or some of the skills that you have in place. And if you can market those skills and you really want to major in art, but you can, you want to market those skills and put those two things together, you will still be able to get jobs. My sister has a master's degree. in some sort of art major that she got. And she works on Wall Street. And so the difference there is that she figured out a way to master some skills, master communication, and she built a network

that really matters. And so this is something I think that a lot of people out there just need to understand is you can make these marketable skills and you can pair it together. And I've seen this happen over and over again. If you really want to major in those different things, then you have to make sure that you have marketable skills paired with that. Now for the people who are stuck in debt, or if you are stuck in debt, getting a debt repayment plan set up or just thinking about how you're going to repay that is very, very important. The cool thing about Master Money Academy is that when you join Master Money Academy, by the way, we have this little spreadsheet that we give people where we will give you a debt payoff plan. So you send it to me, I go in there and I record a Loom video and

tell you, hey, here's exactly how I would pay this off step by step. And here's the exact loans I would pay off in order. And so we do that for you in Master Money Academy. So again, if you're interested in Master Money Academy, we'll link it up down below. Let's get on to number two. So number one is overpaying for college. And again, I don't want anybody overpaying for college. That is the big key. You really need to think through that process, if not,

and if you want us to do an entire episode and a deep dive on really how to think through this stuff, let me know on any of these points in this episode. But number one is thinking through college. Number two is we're going to go in a different direction here. Is fast food and ultra-processed meals? Now, here is something that has been conventionally taught to a lot of people out there.

It's fast food is cheaper. It is the cheaper alternative overall than other types of meals. That is not the case anymore currently. If you go to McDonald's, for example, you're paying $12 for a meal. If you go to Chick-fil-A, you're paying $12 for a meal. If you go to Chipotle, you're paying $15 for a meal, especially when you're like your boy, will you get double meat? I've got to get that protein in if you know what I mean.

And so overall, we got to make sure that when we are thinking through this, we are not deciding to go out and eat fast food because there are a lot more cost. associated with just the price of the meal. And the price of the meal is going to be significantly higher. But let's look at this for a second. So on average, the average home cooked meal is between $4 to $6 per person. And when you go out for fast food or inexpensive fast casual restaurants, the average right now for a meal is $15 to $20 per person. This means it is two and a half to three times more expensive than cooking from home. And so if you can figure out a way, this is the cost is just number one, because if he could figure out a way to think through this, okay, well, if I have

to cook these meals, you know, what is my time worth? That is a big question that I would always have. And so if you're someone who is cooking for one, it might be a lot easier than you think. So let's talk about this for a second. So I have a family of five now. And I just, we just went to Chick-fil-A last week. When we went to Chick-fil-A, guess how much we spent for the family of five? And my youngest is one years old, but she's eating solids now and food. And so she's eating food at the fast food place. A family of food. meal was $55. I remember when I was younger, if I would spend $55, it would drive me up a wall on any given meal whatsoever. Now I have to do it for the easiest, simplest meal at any given point

in time. And I know a lot of you with families are feeling that same exact pain. Whereas you can go to the grocery store, get a pack of chicken, get a pack of some vegetables, get a side, whatever else, and you can spend significantly less. My home slice is over at Aldi. They're going to get you fed for a lot cheaper than you would at some fast casual place. You know, there's a number of reasons why fast food costs have increased. So if it frustrates you, it's obviously labor costs have risen. Commercial real estate costs have been driven up over that time frame. Delivery platforms have caused this to go up way, way more.

And food suppliers have passed down the costs to obviously these fast food restaurants. And so all of these are going to be real reasons why we want to think about this. But what I want you to note here is that, A, there's a financial impact, meaning you're going to save money every single time you cook at home. And cooking at home is one of those things where a lot of us don't like to do it, but we got to find joy in it somehow. And so maybe one person in your household likes to cook and one doesn't. Or if you're single, maybe you don't like to cook and so you just kind of bulk create meals. But there's also an opportunity cost here. And we want to look at this opportunity cost because if you eat out every single day, maybe it's lunch or dinner,

and you eat out on a daily basis or pretty frequently, it can make a big impact. Now, if you enjoy it, if you like eating out, it's part of convenience for you. It's part of your convenience spending. and you really just enjoy convenience and you hate cooking that much, more power to you. You know what? I don't have an issue with that as long as you're hitting your investment goals. But if you're not hitting your investment goals and you're still spending every single day on eating out, then looking at reducing some of these costs can be helpful. Because $4,000 per year is the difference if you are eating out and not eating out on a daily basis. And when we think about this for a second, we can understand, okay, well, if it's $4,000 per year on average,

that can compound to over six figures over the course of the next 10 years. But there's a second part to this equation. And it's long-term health. Because for folks who get out, long-term health is something you will see us talk a lot more here on this podcast. The reason why is because health care is a massive, massive cost later on down the line. And if you don't take care of yourself between your 20s to your 50s, you will pay the price for that in health and in your dollars later on down the line. Health is wealth, and we will talk about this a ton as time goes on. Studies link frequent fast food

consumption to 20 to 129% risk of higher general abdominal obesity. We know when fat builds up in our abdomen, we are going to have a lot more health risks. There is a 68% higher risk of type 2 diabetes and a 85% higher risk of metabolic syndrome. So these are things that you just want to think through because long term, you will pay for these if you are not careful with some of this stuff. And so I really, really think that cooking at home is financially superior in both your health and your wealth. And those two things are going to make a big impact. Now, sure, how many times a week do I eat out? Probably two to three, sometimes even four times a week, depending on what is going on during that week. When I was younger in my 20s and I was trying to get by every single

month, I would never eat out. In fact, usually it'd be max twice every single month. And that was only for specific meetings or conveniences. Outside of that, I try to cook every single meal because I was trying to save every extra dollar. If you have extra cash on hand and you are willing at the end of every single month to pay for that convenience, that is a okay. And there are a lot more healthy options out there. So choosing those options wisely can be really, really important. But I do believe that if you are living paycheck to paycheck, cooking at home is going to make a dramatic difference for most of you. And just learning to learning how to do this can be very important. Now, I have put a system into place, and I have a very specific system on how to even think about this.

And so if you want us to do a whole episode on that, we can. But replacing some of this trash food and fast food with better home cooked meals that are healthier is going to help you so much in the long run. You're going to be more mentally acute. You're going to be able to perform so much better at work, which means you're going to make more money. So it really does help you in every single area of your life when it comes to wealth building. Now, the next one's going to be controversial.

and we're going to get to that next. Number three is, and we have a lot of listeners who have one coming up, but we're going to talk about this anyway. Number three is expensive traditional weddings. Now, a traditional wedding can be one of the best days of your life. It can be a meaningful day in your life, and it can reflect true priorities and what you really want to do in life. But what we're going to be talking about here is the fact that a lot of newly married couples

are financing their wedding. In fact, 45% is the most recent data. of newly married couples go into some sort of debt for their wedding. And sacrificing early financial stability within your marriage and taking on debt because of a wedding or a one day party and let's be real, it's a six hour party when you really break it down is not the move, my friends. It is not the move to make. And so this is something that we need to have a conversation about because the national average of what weddings cost today are $30,000 to $36,000 nationally. And it is up $3,000 to $5,000 compared to just a few years ago.

Now, typical budgets fall between $40,000 to $50,000 plus range in some of these higher cost of living areas, places like New York or San Francisco and some of these other bigger cities, and large and luxury weddings can cost anywhere from $60,000 to $75,000 plus for a one-day party. I'm just going to keep saying that over and over and over again. Now, listen to me right now as I go through this. I understand that most of you, your dream is to have a wedding,

and you want to have that wedding, there is nothing wrong with having a wedding. There's nothing wrong with having an expensive wedding, in my opinion. We've written an entire article way back in the day on this true belief. But you have to have the cash on hand, and you have to have the money there. Weddings are not something to go into debt on. They are something that you pay cash for. And if you do not have the cash or you're not getting support from family members or friends, then this is something where you got to work within your budget.

I know you want to have that dream wedding. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but guess what? it's also something that can drag you down in your marriage and cause stress and anxiety around money if you don't have that cash on hand. So there's a number of different things that you can do, but I want to say that up front as we go through this typical breakdown. Now, how does this break down normally? Now, we can look at venue and rentals. That's usually $8,000 to $12,000. A lot of other weddings out there. If you get a fancy place, you're paying way more than that. The venue can cost you just $30,000 to $40,000 if you are not careful. Catering and food is $6,000 to $10,000 on average

currently right now. I just saw somebody. I talked, had a conversation with somebody the other day. They said the average catering that they are getting is $21,000. Bar and alcohol, that's obviously going to be a very costly thing. It's 2 to 4,000 is the national average right now, but obviously that is getting skewed in a couple of different directions. Photography and video is $3,000 to $6,000. Music and DJ is $1,000 to $4,000. Suits and dress for $2,000 to $4,000. Planner and coordinator, if you higher one can be $2,000 to $4,000. Invitations in the station area, that's a cost that you have to bake in is $1,000. You have cake and dessert can usually be around $1,000, and then transportation is another

$1,000. Now, these averages, as I look at these, I think back to my wedding, they're lower than probably every single area in my wedding. And so this is something that I think most people need to understand that what's the key driver here. The key driver is your guest count. So number one, if you're trying to save money with a wedding, you can reduce your guest count in order to save in a lot of these different areas.

Because reducing a guest list from 200 to 100 can save you tens of thousands of dollars just by making that one move. Now, the hard part is, one side of the family wants all these people to come. The other side of the family wants all these people to come. And a lot of times this gets out of hand where usually the bride and groom

look around their wedding and they're like, a lot of these people here, I don't even care about. And so this is something where establishing maybe some of those guidelines up front can help you with your wallet. and if they want to bring extra people, they can pay for them. That's the way that we're going to think about this. Now, how many couples go into debt over a wedding?

Right now, the average is 30 to 45% of couples take on wedding-related debt. The most common sources are credit cards, personal loans, and borrowing from family. Those three categories are all three the most dangerous ways to borrow money. And really, overall, I want you to avoid this at all costs. The average wedding-related debt falls between $10,000 to $20,000 on average. And this is something that you really, really need to make sure that you were avoiding. You've got to pay cash for weddings. That is our rule.

I don't care if you pay $50,000 for a wedding, but it's got to be in cash. You want your day to be that special or you want your day to be, have all that stuff going on. That is completely fine, but you've got to pay in cash. You have to plan for it and you have to have the cash available. Because I want you to think about this total cost. Just over the course of a decade, a $35,000 wedding can be worth. worth over six figures if you invest those dollars. Or if you put this and get it ready for a housing down payment, you are going to be much better off than most people out there with your housing down

payment. Or you can have a fully funded emergency fund or be investing these dollars. Now, a lot of you out there are like, but this is a one time thing. This is a one time experience. I only get this once. I get it. But I'm just showing you the tradeoffs that you have in place. And really overall, most people are taking on way too much debt when it comes to weddings. Now, when I think about back to my wedding. And I think about, you know, one of the best days of my life in terms of marrying my wife, my forever partner. I love her more than anything in the world. And this is one of those things that I think for a lot of folks, you think back, and I say to myself, was it worth the multiple tens of thousands of dollars that we spent on our wedding? And I'm going to get real with you

guys here. And she doesn't know that I think this, but we're going to say it here anyways. I don't think it was worth the amount of money that we spent. And I think there was things that we could do to reduce some of those costs that would have made a day just as special and really overall something that we could have spent less on. Now, I'll get real, we spent probably around $30,000 on our wedding. Now, this was over a decade ago. And still, even at that point in time, that was on average in my specific area, kind of what you hadn't to spend unless you wanted to reduce the guests. We have a big family on each side. Her side is Greek. My side is Italian. And so combining those two families together is increasingly difficult with that guest list.

If you've ever seen the movie, my big fat Greek wedding, that was literally my wedding, literally step by step. And we had it in a Greek church. We did the whole thing. And so step by step, that's literally what it was like. Windex and all. And so this is something where I just think that when I think back on this, just telling you someone from experience, I think there were things that we could shift or things that we could change that would make the day just a special. but we didn't have to spend so much.

And so there's so many cool things about just thinking back on that wedding day and just having that experience. But there's a lot of things I would change. And if I was doing it today, I'm much more mature and much older now today. And if I was getting married today, there was a lot more different things that I would have done. All right. Number four, let's get into this, is alcohol and shots. So a single shot at the bar is commonly $6 to $12.

And multiple shots in night can cost you anywhere from 30 to $60. and alcohol and shots have one of the highest markups in the entire country with food and beverage. And so this is something where there is really almost minimal benefit to you having multiple drinks or shots out and about. Now, let me say this really clear. Alcohol is not something I completely abstain from. I have reduced intake of alcohol dramatically because I focus a lot more on my health as of late. But alcohol is not something I abstain from whatsoever. So this is something that I think for a lot of people out there. You need to understand some of the drawbacks to alcohol, which there are a lot, including health risks, even, you know, just a few drinks is going to be

something that is detrimental to your health. But number two is that alcohol is very costly and very expensive, where you're probably spending, you know, if you're a regular, if you're a weekend drinker or something like that and you drink regularly, you're probably spending $100 plus per month just on alcohol alone. And if you're drinking out, it's going to be a lot more than that. But three, there's not a lot of benefits to productivity, and it actually hurts your productivity the next day. For me specifically, I've noticed now that I'm older, when you hit your 30s, you realize, oh, shoot, this is going to hit me for the next couple of days just from having like one to two drinks. And so one of those areas where I just don't see a lot of benefits anymore for me. When I was younger, though, it's a social lubricant.

It is something where helps, you know, everybody in the group loosen up. There's a lot of, you know, great ways to utilize it that are positive. but overusing it can be a really huge detriment to most people. And so I think this is something where it's going to disrupt your sleep. It's going to increase dehydration. You just go down the list. Everybody knows the risks with alcohol. Everybody understands this.

And I think if you are someone who is looking to this year, reduce your alcohol intake or just eliminate it whatsoever, luckily a lot of folks are now eliminating alcohol, which I think is a great trend overall. But when this happens and when you see this happen more and more, If you are someone who's like, yeah, I drink a little too much, I need to reduce the amount of drinking that I'm doing, I think it can help you dramatically long term. It's going to help you in your career. It's going to help in your relationships. It's going to help you just have more energy. And that's the overall key. And so what I would say is if you are looking to reduce this over the course of the next couple months, just take a month off and see how you feel. After that one month, just commit to one month. And if you can take an entire month off and see how you feel. If you feel amazing, then maybe you just do these,

or stretches of time where you're not drinking at all. Or maybe you just decide, well, I'm going to have one drink a week, or I'm going to have two drinks every other week, or I'm going to have five drinks a month. And you just set up these rules for yourself and these parameters to help you reduce some of the intake overall. But for most people, I would say the costs plus the health benefits just are not worth it, especially if you are drinking heavily on a weekly basis. You need to reduce that over time. I would highly recommend you reduce that over time. It's going to change your life forever if you do it. So that is something that I'm just going to throw out there. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that because most of us know how detrimental alcohol is for

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Choose news, not noise. CBC News. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation. shouldn't have a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setter.

An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. Number five is brand new luxury cars or leases. So we're going to talk through this and think through the number of reasons why brand new luxury cars. cars can be detrimental long term. And this is a status symbol. A lot of people will do this because of the status and the status symbol that comes with this. But let's just talk about this. New vehicles depreciate 20 to 30% in the first year of ownership. And so when you are looking at

this, some luxury vehicles I have seen as of late depreciating even more than 30% down 40%. Vehicles like a Mercedes or a BMW or some of these other high end of vehicles that really are not worth much used. You can see this depreciation hit take really. really, really fast. In over five years, total depreciation is anywhere from 40 to 60% on a lot of these vehicles. And many luxury vehicles fall toward the worst end of these ranges, which is why, as someone who has owned a luxury vehicle in the past, which will not ever do again, this is something that is really, really important. So let's say, for example, you bought a $50,000 new luxury SUV. Now, today's time and age, that would be a small luxury SUV. And it is worth

$34,000 after year one. and $20 to $30,000 after five years. Well, over the course of driving that for five years, the depreciation hint is $20,000 to $30,000 is what you spent. And depreciation alone, that's before fuel, insurance, and maintenance. But luxury vehicles depreciate more for a number of different reasons. If you don't know this, there is rapid feature turnover. So a lot of luxury automakers are going to change the features,

change the tech inside these vehicles. And so it feels outdated to the folks that can afford these vehicles. But number two is there is a high supply of off-lease vehicles. A lot of folks who have luxury vehicles, they go out and lease them. And all of a sudden, those leases get called, they return their leases, and boom, there is a huge supply of used vehicles out there. There is also a narrower used buyer market. So most people out there are not looking for a luxury vehicle. They're looking for your Toyotas, your Fords, your Hondas, your Chevys.

That's what they're looking for. They're not looking for use luxury vehicles. typically a lot of the folks who buy luxury vehicles are the ones that want to be bawling out and they want the brand new vehicle. And there's a lot of expensive post warranty ownership when it comes to luxury vehicles. Again, I've talked about this a number of times when my wife had a Mercedes. The oil change was like $1,200 to $2,400 per year, depending on if it was oil change A or B. And anybody who has a luxury vehicle knows they do like A, B, C, and they have these different years. And every year you're supposed to rotate between the three of them. And the third one is

always the most expensive where you have to like replace the whole entire vehicle essentially. And it's the most ridiculous thing ever. It drives me up a wall. And it's just a whole entire tactic that they go through. Now number two is the maintenance and the ownership cost. Let's talk about it because that's what we just started talking about. So let's talk about the maintenance and ownership cost. The average maintenance for luxury bands is right around $13,000. Now this is all the luxury brands put together. Some of the higher in luxury brands are going to cost way more than that. Now some brands average between $1,000 to $1,400 per year. Again, my experience was is right around that higher end of that range.

And lower maintenance luxury brands may be $750 to $1,000 per year. Even when you're looking at tires, if you're looking at replacing anything under the hood, it is significantly more expensive on a luxury vehicle than would be on just a regular old car. And ultra luxury and exotic brands cost $40,000 plus over the course of 10 years. The issue is just not repairs. It's the specialized parts.

It's the labor is going to cost more at the dealership. It is the dealer-only service where a lot of these vehicles need dealer-only service, what they say, and out-of-warranty, electronics, and those types of things as well. Now, I mentioned and alluded to earlier that a lot of people decide, well, I'm not going to pay all that stuff. I'm just going to lease it instead. Now, we have done an entire episode on leasing, and I was very subtle and what I think about leasing, and I titled that episode, why leasing is like setting your mom. money on fire. And the reason why I did that, and the reason why I did that was because I want you to know

that leasing is not a better option, where a lot of people would argue and say, well, leasing is a better option. It is not. A lease payment will help you in a number of, there's pros and cons to it. And if you're really, really wealthy, I don't really have a problem if you lease, if you want to just pay the extra because you don't want to deal with any of the maintenance, if you're a very wealthy person. But if you are someone who is deciding on whether to lease or buy, we deep dive into that episode. If you want to check that out, on the differences between the two. Now, dealerships are going to sell you on leases and say it's a lower monthly payment.

It's always under warranty. There's tax benefits for business owners and there's flexibility. There's all these things that they'll throw out there. But for me specifically, in that episode, we dive way deeper into going into that. And so I would not lease if I were you. Now, number six is designer and luxury clothes. So designer clothes and luxury brands are something that I think some people will strive to have, you know, early on in life.

and as they get older as time goes on, once they wise up, they realize a lot of these luxury brands are not worth it. Now, if the quality is much higher than something, I'm a big fan of buying things for life. So if you've ever heard of the Biffle movement or BIFL, you can search that on Reddit, and it is the Buy It for Life movement. Now, this is a group of people who are looking for higher quality items, and they will pay more for those higher quality items so they can own them for life. So an example of this would be, let's say you want to go out and buy a toaster. Well, you can go on the buy it for Life Group and say, which toaster can I buy where I never have to buy another toaster? Typically, it's going to be something like a 1950s toaster. If you can go out and find

one of those. But there are things like that that you want to do where if you just want to buy things once and never have to worry about it again, buy it for life is awesome. But designer in a lot of different instances is the opposite of that. Designer is you are paying for a logo or a brand. You are paying up for status. You are paying up to impress other people. And so this is something where if you are doing that, I highly recommend you work on your money psychology, because money psychology is going to drastically change the way. We think about this. Okay. So global luxury and fashion clothing is a 260 billion dollar market. In fact, the LVMH founder and CEO, Bernard Arnold, I think is his name. He's one of the wealthiest people in the world. In fact, he

the wealthiest person in the world for a very long time. I think it's back to Elon Musk now. I don't know who it is anymore, but he was wealthier than even like Warren Buffett was for a very long time. And so overall, this market by 20303 is projected to reach $430 billion. The annual growth rate is between four to six percent. And the broader personal luxury goods between fashion, accessories, beauty and jewelry is about $390 plus billion in 2024 and projected near $580 billion by 2030. So who actually buys luxury fashion? I think this is the most fascinating part about this, is who actually is buying these items and who is not buying these items.

So if you go back, and I want you to think about this for a second, there's a picture out there of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates standing next to each other. We'll put it on the screen so you can see it. And in this picture, Warren and Bill, they're wearing Hawaiian shirts. Guess what? There's not a Gucci belt in sight when you look at those two fellas. Go look at Charlie Munger. Not a Gucci belt in sight when you look at Charlie Munger.

Go look at Jeff Bezos. He's not wearing an Hermes, go look at any of these big founders or big company owners. Guess what? They're not flaunting their wealth on their clothing. And this is something where I want you to think about this, because 32% of U.S. luxury buyers are ages 25 to 34. 32% a third of luxury buyers are younger folks,

folks who most likely don't make as much as folks who are older over time. And 20% of luxury purchases come. Oh my gosh. This is just one of those things that shows exactly why the marketing is so predatory. 20% of luxury purchases come from households earning under $50,000 per year. Now, you're seeing me pause as I say this because it hurts my heart. It breaks my heart to see this. Because if you're making less than $50,000 per year, you have no business buying luxury items unless there's like a purse that you really want and you want to buy one purse or there's something that you really, really want and you've wanted it for a long time. if you're not hitting your investment goals and you are buying luxury items, please rethink your financial priorities. And millennials and Gen Z account for 45% of global luxury spending.

This means a large portion of luxury spending comes from people in their 20s and very early 30s, people who make less than $50,000 per year, and people who are a millennial generation or Gen Z's generation, which I think right now the millennials are what, 43 and below, 44 and below, somewhere around there. And so this is really, really hard for a lot of people to have to swallow. So luxury brands sell identity. They sell belonging. They sell the perceived ranking of individuals out there. And they sell emotional reinsurance for a lot of people. Most people are consuming this to signal they have class. They have taste. And this is exactly the way that you should be perceiving me. But let me tell you right now. Because studies have shown this over and over and over again.

it increases financial anxiety the more luxury goods you consume. It increases short-term spending dramatically, obviously, and it reduces saving and investing behavior. And so for most people out there who are not saving enough for retirement, but they are buying luxury goods, it's just no. Do not do it. It is an overall dumb thing to do. Now, if you enjoy a nice designer sweater,

or if you enjoy a great designer handbag, or if you want and you are really into watches and you want to buy a fancy luxury watch, I honestly have zero problem with that as long as you plan for it. If you put a bucket into your high-yield savings account and you are saving for that specific item, fantastic. That is absolutely amazing.

My wife has a couple of designer handbags. You're not like the fancy $10,000 ones or anything like that. They are, you know, some of the lower level handbags. But when she wants one, I will start to save for it. I'll start to set up a category and start to save for it and I'll get it for her for Christmas or anniversary or whatever the other it.

But it is not something that I am going to go out and just frivolously just spend on random luxury goods. Warren Buffett said it best. Price is what you pay and value is what you get. And I want you to remember that with every single purchase you ever make. I want you to remember that with every single investment you ever make. Because price is what you pay and value is what you get. Consumerism is a crazy thing. It's a crazy drug that a lot of people will fall prey to.

And a lot of people fall prey to this early in life where they will be buying specific things. just to look different to everyone else, just to have that status, just to feel like they are above people who do not have this specific item. But if you're not making much money and you are buying some of this stuff, you really need to rethink your priorities

and make sure that you do not risk your long-term financial health for a designer wallet or whatever else it could be. So I really just want to say this as status symbols are going to delay your wealth building ability, but if you save up for them in cash

and you have that cash on hand every single month, and you just automate, let's say you automate 100 bucks a month into that savings bucket, you're going to hit that goal pretty quickly. It's not going to take you that long. And so overall, you just got to save for this stuff and pay for cash. Designer is always, always, always paid in cash. Now, if you go into debt for designer, boy, oh boy, do I have something to tell you? You are robbing your financial future.

And if you do that, I really, really highly recommend that you rethink your priorities. It's the last thing I'll say on that because I think I could go really deep into this, but I won't. So a lot of this relates to money psychology. So taking it through your psychology, understanding why you feel this way or why you feel like you want to buy those specific things is very important. Number seven, we're going to go the other direction now is excessive or unused streaming subscriptions. So streaming has become less cost effective now than just even having like the old school traditional cable. They found a way to make more money off us and we're all just paying for it currently. because if you think through, okay, well, now I have an internet subscription and I have all these

streaming services. Maybe you have YouTube TV and you have every single different channel when it comes to streaming from Netflix to HBO to whatever's out there, Peacock, Amazon Prime. There's just a million of them out there now that are great. I love, I mean, Apple's shows are fantastic. I love some of Apple's shows now, but the subscriptions just keep rising. If you have kids, you got to have Disney Plus. I mean, it's just a must. You have to have it. And the cost of each of these subscriptions is rising. It feels like the average one now for a family plan is $20 each subscription. It drives me up a wall. And so if you have every single subscription, I would highly recommend you evaluate this on a quarterly basis.

And so the way I do this is I look at all the subscriptions that we have every single quarter. And I say, how much did we use this? Well, if there are subscriptions that we have that we did not use but maybe once or twice a month over that time frame, they're gone. If we didn't use them at all, they're 100% gone. And if there are months that we just did not use them or maybe. just use them very sparingly, they are also gone. I try to ruthlessly cut this stuff. Why? Because if you have three subscriptions that cost $10 a month over the course of an entire year, that is going to be $360 that you just threw away into the garbage. That's a big, big difference. And so for a lot of

people out there, understanding that if you spend this much, you really want to make sure that you are looking at this in a way that makes a ton of sense. So on average, the combined cost of streaming internet that people pay is about $145. Now, I look at that number and I say, well, I spend a lot more than that. And I know a lot of you probably spend more than that too. And so thinking through this, we want to make sure that we are just monitoring this and reducing these costs as much as possible. When you take on a subscription, make sure you're actually going to use it and make sure if you're

not using it, you cut it out. Now, the good thing about this is monarch money helps me track this kind of stuff too. So I can go look at, hey, what are my recurring subscriptions? They have a little dashboard there where you can see your recurring subscriptions. And I will dive in there all the time and just take a look at it to see if there's anything out of whack or anything I'm just not using anymore. And there always is. And in my business, same thing.

There's always subscriptions that we have that we're just not really using anymore and they're a waste. And so that's a great way to just get rid of some of the costs that you're paying up front. We're going to get into the last two right after this. Number eight is one that is a common conversation that a lot of people are having right now and that is sports betting. So in 2024, Americans spent roughly $148 to $150 billion. on legal sports bets.

And the sports books kept about 13.7 to 14.2 billion after paying out winners. That implies a 9 to 9.5% national hold rate overall. Now, sports betting is becoming something that is harmless if you have rules in place and you have set parameters where you're not going over a specific amount and you can afford it and you're hitting your investment goals. But it is not healthy for most people. and I see a lot of people out there, friends that I have, who are spending money on sports betting, who are foregoing investing. And if you are someone who is doing that, if you think sports betting is an

investment, I'm here to tell you right now, you are making the wrong move. Sports betting is not an investment. An investment is something that will help produce and create an income for your family for your entire life. Assets go up in value and liabilities go down at value. And for those of you out there, who are utilizing sports betting as some sort of misconstrued way to invest for your future, you are making a huge, massive mistake. Now, here's why almost every single person loses when it comes to sports betting. Estimates consistently show that 90 to 95% of betters lose money long term. 95% of people lose money long term.

Why do you think you're going to be any different? Are you in the sports book and looking at every single edge and looking at the weather and looking at every different thing that's happening right now? Or are you just throwing out what you think for the day? because if that's the case, most of these losses are driven by the embedded odds. If you ever heard the term Vegas always wins. Vegas is a lot smarter than even a lot of people on Wall Street, to be honest.

And so overall, you can see that sports books are using real-time data in advance analytics. They're adjusting limits to ban winners, and they are letting losers continue betting without friction. So what's happening is this becomes an addiction. So sports betters are experiencing gambling problems at two times the rate of other gamblers. and about 30% of online sports betters show some level of problem gambling. 30% show some level of problem gambling.

Roughly 16% meet disordered gambling thresholds and 13% at an elevated risk. Now, here's the thing I want you to know is a lot of people will bet with credit cards or personal loans. I have seen this happen before. People will chase their losses, meaning that if you lose money, all of a sudden they're trying to go get that money back, which means they get deeper and deeper into the hole. Or they will raid their savings because they truly believe. leave in some bet, that bet loses, it is all gone in one fell swoop. Or they missed bills or they'll stall investing just because they want to make sure that they get their bets in. This is something

that is a big, big problem. And the bigger problem that's coming to play is something called the prediction market. Now, if you haven't heard of prediction markets before, guess what? This is just another way to speculate and gamble on different things. So there's companies like Kalashi. There are companies like Robin Hood that are out there right now, that all of a sudden, the place that's supposed to help you with your finances and the place that's supposed to help you investing is now allowing you to gamble on sports. Do you see the problem with that? And so right now, Robin Hood, you can go and do what they call a prediction on sports, which is just betting on different sports. And so overall, this is something that I think it blurs the line between investing and speculation

and gambling. And it's a huge, huge concern overall because so many companies are jumping into this market. Why are they jumping into this market? Because it is so crazy. profitable. And so you really have to think through, well, how am I going to consider this? I am not someone who does not gamble. I am not someone who does not enjoy throwing out 10 bucks on a game when it comes to, you know, a Sunday football game. Okay? I will do it. Why? Because sometimes it's just fun. But I hit all my investment goals. I make sure I am doing all the things that are, I need to do first. I got the emergency fund in place. I've got all of those things in place. I've got all of those things in place and I cover all the essentials before I do something like that.

And I have very strict rules on how much I will ever spend on a bet. And let me tell you right now, it is not more than $20. And so this is where a lot of people just get themselves into trouble. They don't have rules. They don't have parameters. And they're not structured in a way that makes a ton of sense. And so if you follow those rules, if you keep your bets structured in a way that you can afford and you say, hey, I'm not going to spend more than 25 bucks in a given month on

this, or I'm not going to spend more than whatever your rule. rules or parameters are and you stay within those rules and you stay disciplined, I don't see a problem with it. But if he becomes a problem and you realize you get emotional, your emotions flutter up and you, they bubble up and you want to gamble more and more and more every single time you do this. And wins are just ultimate highs and losses are ultimate lows. That's a problem. And so you want to make sure that you are looking and checking your emotions when you do this. We will probably have an entire episode diving deep into this, talking about the parameters, talking about some of the problems with this and how to think through this, because I think

it's an increasing problem that could get worse and worse as time goes on. Number nine is diamonds in high-priced jewelry. So we live in an age where in 2026, there's something out there called lab-grown diamonds. And lab-grown diamonds are a significantly cheaper alternative to the traditional diamond where people have to go in to a mine, they have to mine these diamonds, they have to pull them out. A lot of times people will use the term blood diamonds, meaning there is a lot of bad things going on to actually get a hold of these diamonds. And now in 2006, they can make a diamond in a lab that is the exact 100% same thing as a mind diamond. And people are overspending on diamonds still. They're overspending on the old school traditional diamond because that's what was ingrained into their head thinking that this is the way to go.

And so if you overspend on things like this like jewelry or whatever else, it is really, really important to note that there's a cheaper alternative now, especially when it comes to engagement rings or it comes to buying your significant other tennis bracelet or if you're a rapper and you want to bling out your watch, whatever you want to do. Just note that it is significantly cheaper to go with a Lagron than anything else. Now, the resale value, you can argue that. A lot of mine diamonds will hold their resale value while Labgrown may not, and there's all these different things that you can say about that.

But overall, this is an area where a lot of people will waste money. where some people will say, well, jewelry is an investment. This is something that holds value. And sure, long term, things like gold will hold its value over time. It's an inflation hedge, and it is something that we've seen a ton of run up over the course of the last 18 months. And gold can be something that is an inflation head, silver, the same exact thing. But buying jewelry as an investment is not something I'd be interested in doing.

You really have to have deep expertise. You have to understand the market. You have to understand what you're doing. Now, if that's the case and you know everything about jewelry, then you have an advantage. You have that competitive advantage that makes sense. but for a lot of people, the opportunity cost is not worth it. And so I've seen a lot more people saying, well, should I be investing in jewelry that has gold in it or has silver in it so that I can wear it, but also enjoy it as an investment?

That's not really an investment. It's just something you enjoy. And so if it's for a big event or it's for something special like an anniversary or it's for something that you really want to do like a big milestone, you want to go and buy a Rolex, I have no problem with that. But saving up and cash is the way to do it every single time. So don't confuse emotional value with financial value. those two things do not coincide, but I highly recommend every single person out there.

If you're going to buy jewelry, go for it. More power to you. But just make sure you're paying cash for those types of things because that's the most important thing overall. Listen, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Personal Finance podcast. Again, if you want to get direct help from me on a weekly basis, Master Money Academy is the place to be. We do live coaching calls every single week. And my goal is to reduce your stress and anxiety around money. And overall, you are going to be a different person financially once you join Master Money Academy. It is a complete transformation system, and that's our entire goal for each and every single one of you is to become completely transformed with your finances. So if you want to

transform your finances, if you are saying to yourself, now this is the year, this is the time where I am going to change my financial life. Master Money Academy is the place for you. Would love to have you in there and meet you inside. Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and we will see you on the next episode.