﻿With experience comes wisdom. And by making tons of really dumb money mistakes in my lifetime,
I have learned to stop spending money on these 7 things. Hi, if you are new to the channel,
my name is Tae from Financial Tortoise. Here I make videos about personal finance, investing and
all other interesting things related to money. All the while surviving in a multigenerational family.
If these are topics that interest you, consider subscribing so you don’t miss out in any of my
other videos. And if you have yet to download your free copy of “Sandwich Generation’s Guide
to Financial Security - 10 Steps to Securing Your Family’s Financial Future!” please go
to my website at financialtortoise.com and do so. I send out weekly newsletters with
other great tips on mastering your money and I wouldn’t want you to miss them. The first
thing I stopped spending money on is alcohol. It’s not like I used to drink excessively,
but as I got older, I realized I did it more as a social behavior rather than something I
really enjoyed doing. I firmly believe that money should be used on things you love. It doesn't just
exist so you can hoard a pile of it until the day you die. Ramit Sethi is famous for saying
“Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don't.”
But if you want to spend extravagantly on things you love, you need to learn to cut
back on things that you aren’t too excited about. And thankfully alcohol was one of those items
I realized I didn’t love that much. According to some surveys, millennials tend to spend on average
$300 a month on alcohol. This comes out to close to $4,000 annually. If you aren’t in
love with alcohol just imagine what you could do with $4,000 annually. Even if we cut back half,
we are talking about $2,000 we can either invest or spend on things we truly get excited about. The
second thing I stopped spending money on is gym membership. I know many people did this during the
pandemic because they were forced to, but these days with so many good exercise resources online,
I feel like gym membership is starting to become a legacy of the past. Some surveys show that only
18% of people who pay for a gym membership actually use it. And this interestingly is
actually part of many gym’s business models. If everyone who had a gym membership actually came
to the gym regularly, it wouldn’t be able to fit everyone. It banks on the fact that only a
small percentage of people who sign up for a gym membership actually show up to the gym. Both my
wife and I have canceled our gym memberships many years ago and we haven’t looked back. Instead,
I invested in a nice squat rack from Rogue Fitness that would likely last me until the
rest of my life. Look out kids - you get to inherit this baby when your old man dies.
And my wife uses self paced yoga app videos for her exercise at home. We both love the convenience
and the privacy of working out at home. And with young kids, it actually allows us to fit
workout into our daily schedule. Number three thing I stopped spending money on is eating out,
specifically during weekdays when I’m working. I don’t know where I got this notion from,
but I used to think that packing lunch to work was what poor people did. I know a crazy idea right?
For some reason I couldn't imagine successful, wealthy people packing lunch. You see in movies
successful corporate professionals eating a nice expensive meal at a fancy restaurant during lunch
time. But with time, I realized if I really wanted to be wealthy and successful, I needed
to stop trying to look like one, and actually be one - by packing my lunch. I’m proud to say I
actually meal prep all my lunches now - not only does it save money, but it also saves time and is
much healthier than what I would be eating out. It’s not like I don’t enjoy eating out at times.
My wife and the kids love a good restaurant - but because it isn’t something we do everyday, when we
do go out to eat, we actually enjoy it. The fourth thing I stopped spending money on is clothes.
No - I do have clothes. But it’s a once in a while occasion rather than frequently. Similar
to the crazy idea of needing to eat out if I want to be rich, I applied the same mindset to clothes
throughout my 20s and 30s. You hear phrases like “dress to success.” “Or you can tell a
lot about a man by his belt and his shoes.” I don’t know why I thought these phrases applied
to me. Especially when I didn’t have much money. It’s embarrassing to say, but at one point I had
custom tailored suits and dress shirts made with my initials on them. I don’t know where I got the
idea - maybe I saw it in a movie or something. But deep down, because I didn’t have real wealth,
I was essentially trying to overcompensate for my insecurities. I’m sure at this point you
guys probably notice I wear the same shirt in all my videos. If you look at my closet now, you’ll
see I actually have multiple identical shirts. I think I go clothes shopping once a year now,
and if I or my wife see something on sale, I just grab several of them to last me for years. And not
only does this save me money, but it saves me a heck of a lot of time because I don’t need
to spend brain space thinking about what I’m going to wear that day. Steve Jobs was known
for wearing the same outfit everyday because it reduced decision fatigue. Similarly, I’d rather
not only save money but save mental bandwidth for more important decision making throughout the day.
And please don’t take this as you shouldn’t care about clothes if you love fashion. My wife is the
complete opposite of me and I completely support her love of fashion. It’s something she loves to
prioritize in her spending - for me it just doesn’t give me that same level of spark. So
I decided to wear the same outfit every day and save my money for things that I genuinely love
spending money on. Number five thing I stopped spending money on is a bit controversial,
but it is a family pet. Both my wife and I grew up with family pets and we did have a family dog
before our children were born, but when my son was born, we realized we couldn’t give her the
proper love and care that she deserved. Thankfully we found her a loving home and she’s been well
looked after ever since. And some of the side benefits of not having a family pet currently
is not having all the associated expenses; dog food, veterinary bill, grooming and everything
else related to caring for a pet. We might get a pet someday as the kids get older,
but right now we don’t spend money on one and I’m kind of liking the money savings.
Number six item I stopped spending money on is on flights and hotels. And this is because several
years back I discovered something called “travel hacking.” The basic premise of travel hacking is
that when you open specific credit cards that have signup bonuses, as long as you hit the
minimum spends, you can get thousands of points that can be applied to free hotels and airfare.
I’ve been able to take my family to places like Hawaii, Korea and Seattle at a fraction of the
cost because I could offset the hotel and airline costs with these points. And I time the opening
of these credit cards with any major upcoming payments like my biannual insurance premium or
annual property tax payments. You don’t want to fabricate expenses to hit these minimum spends.
You want to align them with any major expenses you would have paid for anyways. You are just
getting additional benefits with good timing. Just to give you a scale of how effective these points
could be, for our 10 year anniversary, my wife and I were able to go to a fancy resort in Big
Sur called Ventana. An all inclusive, adults only resort along the coast of Big Sur. Now the retail
cost of a room there is, if you can believe it, $2,700 per night. For three nights that comes out
to $8,100. And that doesn’t even include taxes and resort fees. Do you want to know what I paid in
cash to stay there for three nights? Wait for it - $50. In points it was 30,000 points per night,
but most of it was accrued via the signup bonus that I talked about earlier. It does take a bit
of work in keeping yourself organized, but I would gladly trade a bit of work if I could get a $8,000
experience for $50. Number 7 thing I stopped spending money on is another controversial item,
but it is on gifts. It is estimated that consumers spend up to $1,000 annually on gifts
and other holiday items. Gary Chapman talks about in his book, The Five Love Languages,
how we all give and receive love in 5 different ways. And gift giving is just one of them. The
other four being words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time and physical touch.
I used to think buying and giving gifts was the only way to express love. And the consumer
centric marketing machines perpetuate this myth because it's best for the company’s bottom line.
Not your bottom line. However, if we genuinely want to express love to our family and friends,
it actually serves them better to find out if they actually like receiving gifts. And most often,
you’d be surprised to find that gifts might not be on top of their list. I realize this
with my own family - I don’t know if it has to do with our life stage or just personal preference
but I realized that my parents didn’t really care for gifts that much. Rather, they wanted
more quality time with the family during holidays or birthdays. And even with my wife,
you will definitely judge me for doing this, but we came to an agreement that cold hard cash
is the best form of gift for both of us. We get to pick what we really want and don’t have to stress
out about trying to guess what the other person really wants. Yes - am I unromantic? Do I have
no style? Guilty to all of them. But it’s worked for us the past 10 years, and cross my fingers,
hopefully for the next 50 years as well. At this point, it might sound like I don’t like buying
anything. I mean, what husband gives cash to his wife on her birthday, right? But I firmly believe
in prioritizing our spending so can we maximize our spending on items that truly bring us joy.
I don’t want to spend money on something because of social expectations or my insecurities. Rather,
I want to spend money on things that really gets me excited, and as Marie Kondo’s would day,
“spark joy.” If you’d like to learn more about what I actually love spending money on,
check out my video here where I go over “5 weird things I love spending money on.”
Thank you guys for watching, and until next time. All the best.