one of the weird things about people is that we work super hard for money but then waste it on
unnecessary stuff at the end of the day. We complain that we don't have free time and
yet willing to work for months to afford something we don't need. This wall street journal article
claims that The average American will have to work about two or three months a year just to
make the payments on a new car with insurance. I am not surprised because I see that all the time.
Ask yourself how much money did you have crossing your hands in your entire life.
I am confident that it's a lot of money, but how much of that money did you save? That's where the
problem starts. Probably not much that's why so many people are in such a dark financial
situation. You know how they say: it's not how much money you make but how much money you keep.
If you are making 10K a month, but you have to live in a super expensive city,
pay a fortune to get to your job and then pay a fortune just to have the same food that actually
costs pennies, that is not real wealth. I can say that from my own experience.
So to start my journey to financial freedom, I started by cutting my expenses. This was one of
the best things i have ever done since budgeting and stop spending money on unnecessary stuff
was my strategy to finally start investing. It doesn't sound like a creative strategy,
but you don't have to be super creative to save money, all you have to do is take a look
at how you are wasting your money and stop it. It sounds simple, and yet most people can't do that.
So I want to share with you seven things i stopped buying to finally
find the money I needed to start investing. So give this video a thumbs up for the youtube
algorithm, and let's jump right into it.
Cars are the biggest money wasters of all time
When I bought my first ever car, I was super excited. Finally, I am on wheels. I have wanted
this for such a long time. No, I did not get a loan to buy the car. I paid cash, and I was
proud of that. Little did I know that the real cost of owning a car is going to come later.
First of all, if you are a fresh driver like I was back then, you gonna pay a fortune in insurance.
Then there are parking fees, gas, and time to time you have to change things in the car because it's
a car and it breaks down. Maybe the first year, you are not going to spend much, but as your car
gets older, your expenses start to rise. So if you live in Downtown, do not own a car,
just use an uber, public transport, or whatever. Buying a car only makes sense when you live
outside the city, or you have kids that you have to drive to school every day or have no
other choice but to own a car to move around. Other than that, if you are a young teenager or
an adult who doesn't have kids, for god's sake, don't buy a car and save yourself a fortune that
you can invest.
2. Don't buy the stuff you need if they are not on sale
There are things you want, and then there are things you need such as toothpaste,
toilet paper, shaving stuff, and the list goes on. You are not going to wake up one morning and
suddenly stop cleaning your teeth. So there is a list of things you need to lead your normal life,
so One of the best habits I have developed is I try to buy stuff I need
when they are on sale. Yes, I buy bulk, and whoever they are not on sale, I don't buy them!
Every now and then, there are going to be
discounted because that's how stores work. Their supplier delivers them products every week, every
month, and the store has to get rid of that merch before the next merch arrives, so the best way to
get rid of your current products is to put them on sale and let people like me finally buy them.
I think it's one of the best ways to save money because
you know that you need these things anyway. All you have to do is a little planning,
just create a list, wait when they are on sale.. It's like stocks. You wait until there is a
correction, then you go all in! The same applies to clothes.
3. clothes
Don't just buy clothes whenever you want, but rather buy whenever they are at a discount.
Clothing stores work pretty much the same way as grocery stores.
Once the new collection arrives, they try to sell them to as many people as possible,
but usually, there will some leftovers at the end of the month or the season, so before the new
collection arrives, they will put them at a huge discount like 30% off or 50 or 70 in some cases.
That's when you should buy clothes.
It's not going to save you a ton of money if you do it once or twice,
but once you turn it into a habit, over a long period, it's going to save you a fortune.
4. Coffee
Let me ask - how many cups of coffee are served a year?
1 billion? 10 billion? 100 billion cups? Nope!
146 billion just in the united states alone and over 400 billion worldwide!
Literally, 1/3 of coffees are served in the US! It seems like there enough people who are
ready to pay 4 or 5 bucks for a cup of coffee. No wonder why this industry is so huge. Coffee has
been ingrained in our culture so deeply that we are now comfortable paying so much for something
that costs less than 50 cents to produce. Of course, the cafe has to pay wages,
electricity, rent and a lot of other expenses, so it makes sense to buy a 5 dollar coffee if
you are going to spend hours sitting in that Starbucks doing whatever you have to do,
but to pay that much money just to drink a coffee is insane. I don't feel sorry for people
who complain about living paycheck to paycheck and yet comfortably spend that much money on a coffee.
5. Unhealthy snacks
This might sound a bit controversial because everyone loves sweets, and saying to people to
stop buying sweets is not something people would take lightly, however, the problem with almost all
sweets is that they are unhealthy and expensive. Going to a Starbucks and getting a coffee with a
super unhealthy slice of cake will cost you as much as a healthy lunch. So if you stop
wasting money on unhealthy snacks, you are not only going to do a favor to your health
but also to your wallet. What could be better than that!
6. I stopped giving loans to friends
I remember when I was younger, I was quite naive, I thought that people genuinely would give you
back your loan and would be grateful if you help them out when they need that help desperately,
but it turns out that giving loans to friends & family means either, 1. Your
money is lost 2. Your money will be returned years later 3. You have to keep reminding them
because they will never return it on time. And that's not an experience anyone would
enjoy. I have given thousands of dollars in loans to friends, relatives and in 70-80% of cases,
they would even forget that they owe me money. I had this friend back in college. He could not
pay his rent, so I loaned him a few hundred bucks. First of all, he never gave me back my money.
Secondly, every time I would meet him, he would act as if he doesn't owe me anything.
I am not a greedy person, but if people help you out
when you need that help, have the decency to return that loan back.
7. Alcohol
15 bucks here, another 20 or 30 bucks there does not seem like something you should be worried
about. You are having fun with friends, that's what you should care about, right?
But have you ever stopped to add up what you spend on drinking in a week?
A month? A year? How about in 10 years? Have you ever done the math? Probably not,
but if you think about it, it already seems like a huge amount. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Americans spend about 1 percent of their gross annual income on alcohol. For the
average household, that's $565 a year, $5,650 in 10 years, or $22,600 over a 40-year period.
At first, glance that might seem like a lot of money to many of you
but you have to note that, $565 per year
breaks down to about $11 a week which might be the cost of a single drink in many cities.
So it's not fair to compare to the average because regular drinkers usually spend far more than
565 dollars a year. Some even go as far as spending above 10 percent of
their income on alcohol and then complain that they are living paycheck to paycheck.
I personally don't drink because I don't see any value in that, I don't see how that possibly
could make my life any better, especially since I work every single day, so I can't risk drinking
because it's not just about that night, but you will need some time to get back to your routine.
Base on what I have realized,
these are the seven things that most people waste money on. if you could just change your
habits a little bit. If you could pay a little more attention to how you spend your money.
Instead of randomly buying stuff you want, if you just wait for that discount or don't buy a car if
you don't need it, if you make your coffee at home or stop eating unhealthy sweets. Just imagine for
a moment how much you can save in a single month. Suddenly you will have all the money that you need
to invest. That you can put into the stock market or save for a downpayment and take a mortgage.
It could be whatever, but it's certainly going to be better than blowing it up in a single night at
a bar just to have some fun.
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