15 Things That Are a Complete Waste of Your Money

Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought, wait a second, I make good money. So, like, where the heck is it all going? You didn't buy a yacht, okay? You bought maybe a few subscriptions and upgraded an iPhone, maybe financed one of them fancy mattresses with numbers. I don't know. And now you call it an investment. Yeah. See, here's the thing. Your wealth is actually bleeding out in 15 totally normal but yet totally destructive ways. And I get it. These money leaks, they're sneaky. They come disguised as self care, as adulting, or I deserve this. And over time, they rob you of options, they rob you of freedom, and they rob you of your future. This is building your money machine, where we help you master your money, eliminate financial stress so you can live a life of choice. Think of it as financial education with a bit of sargassum, but a whole lot of heart. And I'm your host, Mel Abraham. And when I started out, I thought success was this fancy spreadsheet. Me sitting in a corner office and no one talking to me. But yet, fast forward 30 plus years as an advisor, an entrepreneur, and a money mentor. And I've learned the hard way and sometimes the fun way, that money without meaning is like running on a treadmill with a view you know, you see a lot, but you never get anywhere. So in this episode, I'm going to walk through and break down the 15 sneaky money traps even smart people fall into and how to redirect those dollars to build your money machine and give you total freedom. All right, it's blunt, it's practical, and yeah, it might sting a little, but sometimes we need this. Let's do. All right, let's do this. This is going to be. This could be a tough one because it might. Some of this stuff might hit home for you, because I know it did for me. I know that a lot of these things I actually fell into, these are things that I thought about because here's what I've seen over the years of working with people to help build their wealth and including as I've walked this path myself. I'm no different than you. I'm human. I made some of these mistakes. I had some of these leaks that on the road to financial freedom, we. To find ourselves in a place where our money is just leaking out in these little places that we don't even know, that we don't even recognize, or we don't think of it that way. But when we start to plug those leaks, not only do we get to our, Our, our Financial freedom. We get to it a lot faster because now we have the money doing the things it's supposed to do for us versus what the marketers and everything else and peer pressure and all that stuff is done. So. So I'm gonna break it down for you. We're gonna talk about 15 ways that are, I think, a complete waste of money. And it will be pointed, it'll be direct, but I hope you'll stick with me. All right, let's do this. The first one is new cars with old logic. Okay, let's start. Let's start with the car game, because I think this one's a big one. Car dealers do not sell cars. They do not sell cars. They sell payment plans. Think about this. When's the last time you went on a car dealer lot to go buy a car? What do they ask? Did they ask what car you're looking for? Did they ask what. What model you're looking for? No. What did they ask? They ask, what can you afford each month? See, because then they were going to play a mathematical gymnastics game for you. They were going to contort the math to fit your payments. So what they're doing is selling you into. Into a payment. It's the wrong question for you to answer. It's the right question for them to ask, but it's the wrong question for you to answer. Because what they'll do is they'll stretch the loan out, they'll change the features, they'll adjust it, and they'll get to that payment, and before you know it, you are $9,000 underwater and a depreciating liability. That's the truth.

Okay?

You didn't get a 0% APR, you know, deal. You got a $9,000 lesson in compounding depreciation. It's a challenge, and we don't let them do that to us. And the car realizing that the car depreciates immediately when we drive it off the lot. It's a time where you start to look and say, especially if I'm going to finance it. Because typically when you do financing on a car and you drive it off the lot, you're already negative equity. You're already behind the able. You're already underwater. So if I'm gonna buy an expensive car, I'm gonna buy it in cash. And I know that some people say, well, that's good for you. Well, I didn't always. I wasn't always able to do that. But now I can roll my cars and know that I'm not taking on debt. There's a. There's a lot of folks that are in perpetual payment land for their cars because they're depreciating and they can't get out of it. And what happens is that if they're underwater, they. They just roll the negative into the next car and that balloons until they can't do it any longer. You want to get out of it. Buy used. You want to plug this hole. Buy used. Reliable, and with a used warranty on it. Go to the dealer they have. Buy as if new two used cars with the warranty on it and ideally, buy it with cash. Do not confuse financing something with affording it. They're two different things. The affording it part of the equation is based upon your financial plan, based on your income, based on how you set things up to see can I really afford it. If I'm going to finance it, I don't finance it more than three, three and a half years max. None of this seven year stuff.

Okay?

That's ludicrous on a car. Okay, straight up, I'm being straight up with you. Okay, maybe a little more direct than some of my episodes, but I'm being straight with you. Number two, Amazon cart. Oh, my gosh. Have you ever opened a drawer and thought, wow, I forgot I bought this.

Mm.

Everything from foam rollers with spikes, all that. I mean, it's like, I am guilty. I am guilty. Charged me. I am guilty. Amazon is not just a store for people. It's a dopamine dispenser. It really is. And it's costing us hundreds of dollars a month to have the credit card in there. And all I'm doing is I'm going through and I go, oh, that's good, that's good. And then they then throw at it the prime days. Look out. Okay, here's the fix. One, remove your credit card out of the Amazon app.

Okay?

Now, unless you're some numbers nerd like me who memorizes their credit card numbers, when you have to go and buy something from Amazon, guess what? You got to get up, you got to go grab your card, input it in. Do not save it. I want to put as much friction between you and the buying decision as possible to make sure it's the right thing you want to do. So, number one, remove the credit card. Number two, wait 72 hours. Wait 72 hours. Put it in the cart, Leave it there. That's okay. Don't hit buy. And if you still want it after 72 hours, okay, great. If not, you just made yourself some money by Doing nothing. All right, Number three, subscriptions. You thought you had that. You're not just subscribed to Netflix. You're subscribed to Netflix, Hulu, Disney +Max, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, a meditation app. All these things I know for us, we would subscribe to. We subscribe to Paramount plus because we wanted to watch one show and we still have the subscription.

Okay?

And these little charges of 10, $15, $20 a month don't feel like much. It's like little harmless bites at your financial future until you realize that you're spending 1500-2000 a year on stuff that you don't even remember buying or signing up for. So what do you got to do here? It's time to go through them and cancel them and cancel them fast, guilt free. You can always sign up later if you need it again. Then take that cash, take that, that money that is no longer going to subscriptions you are not using and reallocate it towards your financial future, towards your goals. Use it to build the plan to get you follow the wealth priority ladder from my chapter 12 of my book. At least you'll know that that money is going towards something that's bringing you joy.

Okay, bringing you joy.

Then number four. Okay, Fitness equipment. Yeah, that gets used twice and then never again and becomes. It becomes your laundry rack.

Okay.

The peloton, the Bowflex, the Reformers, the weighted vests, the vibrating plates. I had it all. The treadmills. You don't buy fitness. You do fitness. When you buy these things, a lot of times you're buying the intent of it and it becomes this towel rack.

Okay?

But instead it doesn't have to cost a lot to work out. It doesn't have a cost a lot to have a bunch of equipment that you're not using. I walk four and a half miles every morning with the dogs. What does it cost me? Okay, some dog treats, but that's it. Okay, I do have a gym here, so I do have equipment, but I use all the equipment that I have now. Have I bought stuff that I don't use? Yes. Got rid of it now. Okay, but think about how, how you can do that. Instead of buying stuff that you don't use, prove to yourself you're going to use it first before you buy it. So. So earn it by using it or creating habits, fitness habits. Before you start buying stuff that, that you don't know if you're gonna. Because it looks neat, it looks cool. Oh, that'll make it easier for me because it's got a pulley and all that stuff. And most of the time, these are just marketing tactics to get you to buy stuff. But the fact of the matter is, you won't get healthier, you won't get in better shape unless you do stuff. So start with your habits. Walking, daily, body weight workouts. Prove yourself consistently. Earn the upgrade to something else. Okay, number five. But I can't tell you how often I hear this, and I've said it to myself, but it is on sale. You didn't save $70. You spent $130 that you didn't plan to spend, period. Now, you might sit back and go, but, but if I didn't do it now, it would cost me 200, and so I saved 70. Yeah. All right. That is marketer math.

Okay?

If the only reason you're buying something is because it is cheaper than it was before, then that's a leak, and it could be a big one. So ask yourself, would you pay full price for this? And if not, then it's not something you need that badly. Back away.

Okay?

The deal shouldn't make the utilization.

Okay?

Now, granted, if you're in the market for it like I was in the market for. For some. Some new cameras, and I literally knew that they were going to go on sale in one of the. One of the sales that were coming up. So I put them in the cart and I waited. And when they went on sale, I bought it. But I wasn't buying it because of the sale. I was waiting for the sale to let me get a better deal for something that I already knew that I needed.

Okay?

So the best deal is not buying it all. Okay, number six, the investment excuse. Yeah. Reframing a purchase as an investment. My $900 coffee maker, my $700 Vitamix blender. The $5,000 mattress that massages and has numbers and does all kinds of things. We can call those investments, but it's spending.

Okay?

I mean, it really is an investment. A true investment is something that. That creates cash flow and builds wealth. My Vitamix, it's helping me stay healthy because I'm doing my shakes. Still would have spent it. But let's let me not try to lie to myself and say it's an investment. It is a tool that I'm spending, I spent money on to help me create my shakes and do the things that I want to stay healthy. So I see how you spin it as an investment in my future, but is it truly investment in the. In the construct of a financial investment? It's not. It's not, okay? And so we can be real about it, and it's okay to enjoy the luxuries, but just be. Be honest about it. You're enjoying luxuries. Don't call it an investment, okay? And the Vitamix is a tool. The mattress is a luxury, those kinds of things. But understanding that we need to buy responsibly and it's something that you want to own, then plan for it. Don't try to justify it after the fact. Plan for it. Buy it. No guilt, no shame. You're done. You're good.

Okay. All right.

Number seven, courses and conferences you don't use. All right? You didn't buy that 997 course. You bought the fantasy of the future that you wanted. Here's the thing, okay? People have asked me over and over again, hey, is it a good investment to buy this course or to go into this mastermind or do this? And you know, who can answer that question? I can't. You see, it is a good investment, and it becomes a possible investment if you use it. But if you buy it and it's just in a folder somewhere on your computer or a login or on a shelf, it does you no good. That's. That's a leak. That's a waste of money. You're not getting any benefit from it. When you go to a conference or when you buy a course, then the thing to do before you do it is, what are the outcomes? What I'm going to do? What do I want this to do for me? I'm going to a conference this month with a very specific intent. I'm not just going to intend to attend. I'm going to do something and have an outcome at the end of the conference. And when you do that, now, all of a sudden there's value in it. But just saying, I went to the conference, there's no value in it. I bought the course and I didn't use it. There's no value in it. And, okay, no logins, no implementation, no change, nothing. Okay? Education itself, information itself does not create results, even in the financial space, but action does. Finish what you started. If you're going to buy it, use it, okay? If you're going to buy it, use it. If not going to use it, don't buy it.

All right?

You need commitment. That's the key. Number eight, DIY that ends in disaster. You spend 10 hours watching plumbing YouTube videos to avoid calling a pro. Listen, I know when I'm out of my league, I Know when I ain't touching something.

Okay?

Because I watched my dad so often try to. I can fix this. I got. My dad was an engineer, and he was a chemical plastics engineer. And the only thing he would use to fix things is epoxy, cement, duct tape, electrical tape, and that's it. And so he would try everything, and inevitably, we'd have to call the professional to fix it. So there are things you can do, but then you need to understand where that line is, okay? Doing it yourself sometimes feels productive. It might even think that you're saving you money. But the fact of the matter is, if it takes you, you know, 10, 20 hours to do something that the plumber would have charged an hour for, then maybe, just maybe, get the plumber to do it. All right, so you're genius for not spending 3,000 on a $200 fix. But if, on the other hand, it eats up all your time where you could have spent $200 to get that done, maybe we do that. All right, Number nine, the points game. It's playing you. You know, but I get points. You know, if you're in credit card debt and you're carrying balances and you're telling me I use it for points, this is a problem. You need a therapy dog. You need. I mean, I told you this one was going to be direct. You don't need a platinum card. You need a debt plan. You need to get out.

Okay?

There is no free lunch. There is no free lunch. You think that they're giving you something free because they give you points. Don't kid yourself. One, they know that you're overspending because they've taken the friction out of the buying decision. Two, somewhere down the road, there is a payment. Someone else is subsidizing it. And you know who's subsidizing it? The people that are carrying the balances. Because someone like me, I'll buy something on a credit card not because of points, but because I'm going to use a credit card and I pay it off at the end of the month, but I will get points for it. It's a byproduct. They don't make any money on me because I don't carry balances and I don't pay them interest. I'm not lying in their pockets. But how they subsidize the points that I get or you get is the people that haven't been paying the balances because they're charging them 29% interest.

Okay?

So if you're going to do this and you're going to do the points game. The only way to do it is you pay your balances in full. If you can't pay your balances in full, points will never justify the buy. The buy? Never.

Okay, okay.

Number 10, self care. That's actually stress spending. $180 massages, $300 brunches, a shopping spree, all those things, let's not confuse it, okay? That's stress relief, emotional buying. It's why when I have people journal their spending, I have them journal the amount. I haven't journaled what it was for and I haven't journaled the emotions and the feelings at the time they made the purchase. I want to look for the emotional triggers now. I'm not saying to stop it, okay? I get massages. We do expensive brunches. I'm saying to be deliberate and intentional and to understand what the motivation is. If there is an emotional tie to the spend, there is an emotional trigger to it. There is something underneath it that's causing the spend. In fact, what ends up happening is you'll get this momentary satisfaction, but you won't have the long term fulfillment because you didn't do it for the right reasons. So let's not confuse stress relief with self care. It's not real. Self care is planned and it's absolutely guilt free. You don't show up with a. It doesn't show up on a credit card with interest attached. It doesn't do that. You want a massage, great. I get them, plan for it, budget for it, go do it. No guilt. Lay on that table, get the massage. You're not worrying about. There's no financial anxiety. So I'm looking at it saying it's not that you do it. I want you to do it with a clear conscience, no guilt, and know why you're doing it. Want the massage because I want the massage. Want the brunch because I want the brunch, not because it's serving a secondary gain of something else. Okay, number 11, status cards that you don't maximize. You got this thick metal card. I got a metal card, a black metal card, and the one that goes clunk if you drop it on the desk. But here's the question. Are you actually using the lounges and the hotel credits and the concierge and the travel perks. And if you're not, you're paying 5, 6, $700 for your ego, not the benefit. Okay, time to audit it, time to look at it. Time to downgrade it. Trying to get time to Reallocate it. Okay, I have one card that I pay a substantial fee on, but for that fee, I get. I get access to the lounges when I travel. And with my travel schedule, I'm always in the lounges, okay? So I get that fee, and I get a couple of other benefits. It absolutely dwarfs the fee. Otherwise it would never pay. In fact, y', all, I don't have an American Express card because I don't. I don't want the fees. I don't want it. I don't. I don't own it. Now. A lot of people swear by it. Not me. I'm good. All right, number 12. Don't let my wife hear me say this, because she'll. She'll shoot me skincare that promised magic.

Okay?

I. There are things that I don't know which mask is on today, tomorrow, and the serums, the creams, the. This. I keep. Keep telling her, like, all I need to do is wear a shirt that says collagen. She'll never get rid of me. Anything with collagen in it, okay? I'm giving her a hard time. I got a beautiful, beautiful wife. I don't think she needs any of it. But jade, rollers, all of that stuff. So here's the thing you need to make sure. And I'm game for trying some things and seeing what works. I have very specific toiletries and stuff I use because of the cancer. All natural, all. All clean. That's all I do. And so I'm very specific about there's a reason for it. But then ask yourself, is all of all of this stuff making a difference? And if it is, great. If it isn't. Yeah. Time to scrub it. Bad pun. I know. All right, time to get rid of it.

All right?

Because they can cost a fortune. And they put you on these. These subscriptions, and all of a sudden, you're paying it every month, and it's stacking up because you're not using it, because it's not making a difference. All right, number 13, remodeling for the ROI on the house that never shows up.

Okay?

You watch the home improvement shows. You decided you're going to add a new closet, a wet bar, you're going to take out a wall, all these things. Listen, I have a special, special place in my heart for contractors. Not really, because I think that there's the. I don't ever want a contract in my house again. We did a remodel that was a disaster. Disaster. I mean, they put a hole in the roof that they didn't mean to do. They dropped paint all over the balcony. I mean, they got black sealant on the white, clean, white, smooth stucco. I mean, it was a disaster. I'm like going, y' all don't think what's going on? But you sit back and say, I'm going to do this improvement. I'm going to do these things, and it's going to make the house worth doing $200,000 more, $100,000 more. It's not. Okay, before you start, I'm all for you doing the improvements, but don't justify the improvement, believing that it's going to give you an ROI on the other side, because there's a handful of things, renovations that will pay off and others that really don't.

Okay?

So just know which ones they are. You know, if you have the kitchen and the bathroom, all those things, they can, if you don't overbuild, create more value in the home. But the fact that you put this, this imported crown molding in probably isn't. So just be honest is all I'm saying here. It's a lifestyle decision. A lifestyle decision, and you get a chance to do it. And just know which ones might turn out into improving the value of the home and others that don't. And. And be honest about it, but don't justify it by saying, well, we'll get it back on the sale.

Okay.

Most likely not.

Okay.

Then the other side of it is, is to go into debt to this. If you start pulling equity out of the home to do improvements that aren't actually going to truly improve the value, then you go into debt to try to impress people on Zillow, and that's it. So I would caution you. Set leads me to number 14. The last two. Here we go. Overpaying for advice that doesn't deliver. Okay, now this one's a tough one because I don't. I don't believe that it is. It is 100% true.

Okay?

People. There's a lot of people out there saying, don't get advisors. You don't need advisors. You don't need to pay the 1% fee. You don't need it. You don't need it. You don't need it. And you know what? A bunch of. You don't need it. Especially when starting out, when you don't have complexity and critical mass in your portfolio. Given the tools, given the things, given the stuff like in my content and my book and everything, I tell you exactly how to do it. The. Do you need an advisor? Not likely. At some point, will you? Hopefully. Because your money machine gets so big you need it. Do I have a set of advisors? Yes, I do. Do they get paid? Yes. Do they get paid well? Yes. Is it eating into my returns? Certainly it is. Are they earning their keep, though? And the answer is yes. Absolutely they are. They're not picking the investments for me. We pick them together and we know what's going on. They're doing far more stuff because of the complexity of what the things are that we have to make that happen. But if you're going to pay an advisor, don't do it because it's convenient. Do it because it's productive. I'm okay with doing it, but let's make sure that you're getting the value out of it. Otherwise you don't pay a percentage fee. You pay a flat fee. You say, can I get an hour or two of your time? Can you help me build this plan? And it's not some lifelong toll. Do it right to get the value out of it is all I want to say here. Because I think that too often we just park it and let them do it, and we just pay the fee. But I'm not getting value out of it.

All right.

Leads me to the last one. Buying for the person you want to be and not who you are. All right, you bought, I don't know, a 2000 desk, a $2000 desk because you want to take productivity seriously. Or a brand new bathtub because you want to do Epsom salt baths and soaks.

Okay?

And so listen, you're buying a fantasy that you're creating in your mind. The truth is, you don't need to buy to become. You actually just need to act. And you are.

Okay.

And dressing it up, anything different isn't the same thing. You want a place to journal, you can do it on the porch. There's no teak required. There's no special furniture. There's no special anything. You want to be more productive, you can be more productive. It's a choice. Are there tools that might help you do that? Yes. But does it require you to say, in order for me to be productive, I spent two or three thousand dollars on this special desk, this special chair? No, probably not. And all I'm saying in all of these is that we need to be honest. We need to be open. We need to be aware and intentional and then make the decision. And if you make the decision, great. It's no longer a leak, it's an intentional. That's it.

Okay.

And then I have a bonus one for you. Here's the thing, and that is to look at your spending, and if any of it is emotional means that there's dopamine involved, which means that you haven't thought it through. From a logic standpoint, emotional spending is typically not good spending. So I want to understand the emotional triggers that come into play. And so I want to avoid emotional spending in any way. So it's not a specific thing, it's just a general thing to avoid a couple of things. Avoid emotional spending, avoid complexity. So if there's things that I'm investing in that bring complexity and everything, why am I doing that? My investing is very simple. It used to be complex. We've simplified it tremendously. But it is very simple and it does really well. Why put friction and complexity in if we don't need to? And then avoid adrenaline. If you're spending or your investing comes with an adrenaline rush, it's the wrong kind of thing. All right, so that's it. Those are the places where I think people waste money. I think it's a complete waste of money. But look, most people waste money, including me, on things that feel normal, like I do. Okay? I'm normal. I'm a human. Smart people included you included all of you. I'm with you. You're not alone. I'm doing this too. I'm looking at this going, oh, I better look at the subscriptions. I better look at some of these things. So I'm on this journey with you. But you don't get financially free by optimizing 2% on a grocery bill. You get it by plugging the leaks that may cost you thousands over time. That directing your money with intent, following the wealth priority ladder with intention, and making sure that each dollar is working harder for you than you did for it. It's the very reason that subtitle of the book was, that is I need every dollar aligned, working towards the goal of financial freedom, giving me the life today and tomorrow that I dream of. No guilt, no shame, no fear, just clarity.

Okay?

You get a chance to look at it and say, I can temporarily stop the luxuries, maybe, or some of them and use it to build things so I have more luxuries later. It's time to build your money machine. It's time to take control. Because that's the thing, thing that gives you freedom. That's the thing that gives you choice. That's the thing that will give you peace of mind. If this is something that I think makes sense for you and it should make sense for everyone. Do me a favor. Stay on this journey with me. We got more coming your way. I want to help shine the light on the path to financial freedom for a million families. I want one of them to be you. So make sure that you've subscribed to this channel. Subscribe to the show. Stay with me. Share it out. Let me know what you think. Let me know which one of these 15 you might have in your life that you're going to get rid of.

All right.

I'd love to hear from you. Until we do. Until I see you on your road to financial freedom, always, always strive to live a life that outlives you. See you in the next one. Cheers. For now.