12 Middle Class Habits Keeping You Poor

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00:00 Intro
00:35 car payment
01:41 spending
02:51 spending selfishly
04:05 buy don't comsume
06:48 drinking
07:51 spending more
09:00 the wrong discounts
09:54 its rigged
11:10 listen to friends
12:09 5 people

[GabeBult]

Purchase shares in great masterpieces from artists like Pablo Picasso, Banksy, Andy Warhol, and more.

[janiceestes]

I am 70 years old, and I never smoked a cigarette in my life, and I probably had a sweet, liquored drink less that 10 total. I don't have TV that is turned on. I do however belong to a YMCA to swim three times a week for 1 hour. But my health is great, and I don't take any meds. So, I feel very BLESSED.

[codywheeler]

1. Car payment
2. Spend more than earn
3. Spend selfishly
4. Buy don't consume
5. Increasing spending after raise
6. Buying the wrong discount
7. Listen to your friends

[ipconfigearth]

Car payment - it’s evil - that’s the reason we need people friendly road design. Not car centric road design

[carmenhealer]

My first car was 10 years old and I drove it for 10 years. My 20 year old car sold for 1k dollars. I laughed along with everyone else who laughed at the car. I have a no debt habit and yes, I can be very generous. It is free to listen to the birds in my garden instead of going to a noisy mall buying crap I do not need

[melvano]

I saw a guy spend 48 dollars on cigarettes and sodas today. The economy must be booming.

[GOPRO]

I worked in consumer finance and the majority of customers spend 110% of what they gross.

[liuzhen]

I've been completely Stop drinking for 6 months now, and I've lost weight from a BMI of 29 to 22.4 . I've also controlled my shopping urges... I hope these changes can transform me. I think there needs to be a trigger for all of this to start, and for me, it was the breakup of my last relationship. I'm not sure if achieving these goals will make me feel better about myself, but one thing is for sure, I'm definitely healthier now and my skin looks better.

[JJ-cnjg]

For some members of my family, that credit card debt is due to high prescription and emergency medical expenses. There is more to this problem structurally than savings habits.

[mentalmadness]

A comment on "Buy don't consume" is also about consuming less in general, aka "Content", it might not be that we buy to much stuff but the fact that we give away our attention/time energy on stuff that really don't affect our lives, for example the news, gossip, tv-shows etc.

[agabrielhegartygaby]

I love your compassion-donation point of view: imagine were one homeless? That hot shower etc a great YouTube connection - this video....thank you

[gaelenoconnell-bidabadi]

Not sure what everyone else does, but in 2016 I bought a new 2015 Prius that the dealership was desperate to get off the lot to make room for their newer cars. You can negotiate the heck out of a car in this situation if you do want to buy new. Paid cash for it and all taxes and fees. Just bought the basic model and then, for cheap, later just upgraded it in a few small ways to make it more comfy, which was the right fit for us since we could afford to pay for those upgrades in cash as well. It's old now, but is doing fine. Not perfect like a 2024 car would be, but it's been paid off for years so we invested that money we would have had for a car payment into the stock market and retirement instead. It's never going to win any awards for being a perfect or good looking car especially now over all the years, but the decision made us a lot of money over all of those years and I just don't care to keep up with the Joneses on cars since cars are depreciating assets. I plan to run it imto the ground until it dies. It only has 90, 000 miles over all these years and we kept up on all the oil changes and basic routine inspections and fixes as needed over the years so I'm hoping it still has a way to go. All the while with the money we made in investing over all of those years while still driving this car, we saved up enough to easily pay cash for the next car once this one dies. Personally I think the key is to pay in cash for all if not some or most of your next car if you can and to take basic care of it and run it for as long as you can and not to care what your friends and neighbors think of its looks. If people judge you for that, I think it's on them not you and that they aren't folks you'd want to keep company with anyway. Sorry for the long winded rambling but just my 2 cents. Could afford to pay in cash for any car on the planet pretty much but I still love my simple basic 2015 Prius! Trust me, in Silicon Valley I see a bevy of expensive cars and folks who try to show off the latest and greatest. Don't get caught up in all that hype.

[SigFigNewton]

Pro tip: since having a job in Western Europe is much more of a guarantee of a decent life than having a job in the US, maybe the bad habit keeping someone poor is living in the US

[AllHorizons]

I don’t think your math works on the car payment. If I buy a car for $20k and put down $5k, my interest over five years is about $2, 800. But the $15k that I leave in an investment account will likely bring in about $9k. So, if I spend all $20k on the car, I’m really losing money long-term (and moving cash from an asset that appreciates to something that depreciates pretty rapidly).

I think the better advice is really “hey, buy a cheap car and keep it for as long as possible.”

[KingOfGoogleEarth]

Where are the children? How can someone find the time to create content for a YouTube channel? As a father of two, the same age as your sons, balancing a side hustle after a long day of work seems impossible. I feel so tired, and spending the little free time I have not with my children makes me feel so uncomfortable and feeling guilty. Your advice is generally sound and correct, but I find many of them difficult to apply when you have a family and children because your choices impact not only your life but also the lives of those around you.

[janetbransdon]

Here is another which has saved me so much money as well as having grocery security. Buy in bulk and 12 months in advance of non perishable items such as toiletries, cleaning products, canned goods etc. With grocery items rising in costs at an alarming rate this method of saving is money in the bank.😊

[Blurst]

I like the pick your friends wisely one. It's funny because I became the friend in my friend groups that wasn't really into drinking and clubbing. So when we all hung out I was the one not drinking and saving money while they are spending tons of money. Fast forward to today, most of them have basically developed the habits I created for myself years ago.

[qxridss]

Nice list! Lifestyle creep is real when raises are involved. My mindset has evolved over the years from spender to saver. I recently received a nice raise and my first inclination was to up my 401K contribution and pad my emergency fund.

[risingphoenixbronco]

Car payments. I just retired at 58. Never had one. First cars were all reliable beaters. Never bought a new car until I was 36 but it was for my wife who was pregnant at the time (2003) and paid cash. Next car was 2010 then 2022. All paid for cash. And yes my wife gets those. I’m a millionaire driving that POS 2011 Chevy HHR next to you in traffic. I bought it at the salvage car auction for $1, 200 four years ago. Car payments are a trap. 12:46

[June_Yue]

I bought my car in cash when I moved out of my parents place, the dealer did not want to sell it to me for cash, he made up an act of going to talk to the manager to get permission.