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On this episode of the personal finance podcast, 9 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 gonna be talking about nine things that I think are a complete waste of money. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join Master Money newsletter by going to MasterMoney Co 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 help out the show, consider leaving a five star rating and review on Apple Podcast, 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, 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 gonna come down to your money psychology. This is gonna 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. 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. So you just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. So how do you find amazing candidates Fast? It's easy. You just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed's sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. Your post jumps to the top of the page for the most relevant candidates so you reach the right people faster and it makes a huge difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed get 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. There are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. In fact, while I've been reading this ad, 23 hires were made on Indeed Worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. 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Your housing payment is already your biggest expense. Make it your most rewarding. Find the card that fits your lifestyle and apply today@joinbuilt.com Pfp that's J O I N B I L T.com Pfp and make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you. Terms and limitations apply subject to approval and eligibility. Built cards are issued by column in a member FDIC pursuant to license from MasterCard International, Inc. 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 with 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 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 trade offs 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 could 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 could 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 place. 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 trade off 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 trade off to make. In fact, most people who are doing that, if you think you're going to make 40 to 60 thousand dollars 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 going 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 you 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 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 $399,000. 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 is paying us back. And really we do not want to get trapped. So number one, if you're thinking through 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, you know, 50, 60, $70,000 just from borrowing. Too much over borrowing and becoming over leveraged 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 in 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 actually change 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 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? Because 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 New York 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 at 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, ten 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, 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 I 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 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 think it 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 is 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 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 costs 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, 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 you can 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 spend 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 five 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 timeframe. Delivery platforms have caused this to go up way, way more. And food suppliers have passed down the cost 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 eat 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 of 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 convenience sake. Outside of That I tried 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, and just learning to, learning how to do this can be very important. Now I 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. But 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 to $36,000 nationally and it is up 3 to $5,000 compared to just a few years ago. Now typical budgets fall between 40 to $50,000 plus range in some of these higher cost of living areas. Places like New York and San Francisco and some of these other bigger cities and large and luxury weddings can cost anywhere from 60 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 upfront 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 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 to 40,000 if you are not careful. Catering and food is 6 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. Is 2 to 4000 is the national average right now. But that is getting skewed in a couple of different directions. Photography and video is three to $6,000. Music and DJ is 1,600 to $4,000. Suits and dress for two to $4,000. Planner and coordinator if you hire one can be two to $4,000. Invitations in the stationary, that's a cost that you have to bake in is $1,000 plus dollars. You have cake and dessert can can usually be around thousand dollars and then transportation is another thousand dollars. 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. And 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 gotta pay cash for weddings. That is our rule. I don't care if you pay $50,000 for a wedding, but it's gotta 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 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 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 trade offs 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 the 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 had to spend unless you wanted to reduce the guest list. 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 as 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 as 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's 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 six to $12. And multiple shots a 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 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 a hundred plus dollars 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 it helps, you know, everybody in the group loosen up. There's a lot of, you know, great ways to, 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. There's, you know, 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 over, 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 could take an entire month off and see how you feel, if you feel amazing, then maybe you just do these bouts 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 that 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 our long term health. Billion dollar investors don't typically park their cash in high yield savings accounts. Instead, they use one of the premier passive income strategies for institutional investors, which is private credit. Now the same passive income strategy is available to investors of all sizes thanks to Fundrise Income Fund, which has more than $600 million invested and a 7.97 distribution rate. With traditional savings yields falling, it's no wonder private credit has grown to be a trillion dollar asset class in the last few years. So visit fundrise.compfp to invest in the Fundrise Income Fund in just minutes. The fund's total return in 2025 was 8% and the average annual total return since inception is 7. 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They help you figure out what's best for your needs and your family and they make the whole process Easier answering questions, handling the paperwork, and guiding you step by step so you can stop worrying about it. So start your year with clarity and peace of mind. And plan the year knowing you've protected what you've built. And with Policygenius, real users have gotten 20 year $2 million policies for just $53 per month. So head to Policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's policygenius.com you know what happens every new year? We start looking at our money and saying, how do I actually make progress this time? Whether it's paying down debt, saving for your emergency fund, or saving for a house, you need more than just a tracker. You need a plan. And that's where Monarch comes in. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that I use to actually move the needle. It shows where my money is going across every account, budget, investment and debt. And it helps me to redirect it towards my goals. And it's not just tracking. It gives me projections, timelines and visuals that show how close I am to financial freedom. I can even share it with my wife. So we're on the same page with no additional cost. So set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch. Use code pfp@monarch.com for 50% off your first year. That's half off of monarch.com with code pfp. 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 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 vehicles that really are not worth much used. You can see this depreciation hit take really, really fast. And 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 22. $30,000 after five years. Well over the course of driving that for five years. The depreciation hint is 20 to $30,000 is what you spent in 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 used luxury vehicles. Typically a lot of the folks who buy luxury vehicles are the ones that want to be balling out and they want the brand new vehicle 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 1200-2400 dollars 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 brands is right around $13,000. Now this is all the luxury brands put together. Some of the higher end 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 right around that higher end of that that range and lower maintenance luxury brands maybe 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 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 of these things that they'll throw out there. But for me specifically in that episode, we dove 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 or 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 again? 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 market. In fact, the LVMH founder and CEO, Bernard Arnault, I think is his name. He's one of the wealthiest people in the world. In fact, he was 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 2033 is projected to reach $430 billion. The annual growth rate is between 4 to 6%. And the broader personal luxury goods between fashion, accessories, beauty and jewelry is about 390/plus billion dollars 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 belt. 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 just, 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, 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. They're not like the fancy ten thousand dollar 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 occasion is. 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 think, 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 your 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. So 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 thinking 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 gonna 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. 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 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, the cost of each of these subscriptions is rising. Like, it feels like the average one now for a family plan is 20 bucks 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 what 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 and 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 are paying upfront. We're going to get in 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, $50 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 are 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 in 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 bettors 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 the sportsbooks are using real time data and advanced analytics. They're adjusting limits to banners, and they are letting losers continue betting without friction. So what's happening is this becomes an addiction. So sports bettors are experiencing gambling problems at two times the rate of other gamblers. And about 30% of online sports bettors 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 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 into 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 Robinhood that are out there right now that all of a sudden the, 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, Robinhood, 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. 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 I need to do first. I got the emergency fund 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 rules or parameters are, and you stay within those rules and you stay disciplined, I don't see a problem with it. But if it 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 and 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, you know, 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 2026, they can make a diamond in a lab that is the exact 100% same thing as a mined 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 a 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 lab grown than anything else. Now the resale value. You can argue that a lot of mine diamonds will hold their resale value while lab grown 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 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 markets, 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 could 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 in 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. 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.