7 Things You NEED To Stop Buying To Get Rich

I traveled on private jets, drove a supercar, and was surrounded by the best looking women when I was becoming a multi-millionaire. Sorry to break it to you, but that statement is a complete lie. The trouble is, a lot of people that want to get rich are trying to live a lifestyle like this. Why? Because many would rather look rich than actually be rich.

So if you’re someone that just wants to show off a flashy lifestyle, then this article isn’t for you. Turn it off and go and spend the next 30 years spending everything you have until you get to 50 years old and have nothing to show for it. Don’t get me wrong, I did experience all the things I mentioned. However, not until I had at least a million dollars in liquid assets. So when I say you have little to no chance of becoming a millionaire at the same time as living a lavish lifestyle, I’m not trying to crush your dreams, quite the opposite. I want you to do all the hard work now so you can enjoy all the benefits of wealth later on. The biggest being the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want.

So, if you want to become rich, then listen up because if I was in your position, I’d avoid buying these seven things.

1. A House (Your Primary Residence)

Number one: A house. A lot of people aren’t going to agree with this one, but buying a house for yourself, if you’re serious about getting extremely rich, is one of the worst moves you can make. I didn’t always think this way, but in recent years, I’ve changed my mind, mostly due to a conversation with my son Curtis. One day he revealed to me that he’d saved up around $70,000 from working a couple of years as a freelance videographer. And I suggested he used it as a deposit on a house and start paying off a mortgage.

Now before I continue, I still stand by this advice if you’re just looking for a slightly better than average level of wealth, but now it doesn’t apply to those that want to become truly rich. Curtis was, and still is, very against the idea of buying a house for himself. At the time he said to me, “It’s taken me years to save up this money. Why would I lock it up in a house rather than reinvest it into building my business, which has already made me a decent amount of money?”. I took a moment to think, and I realized he was completely right. Buying a house for himself would lock up all the money he’d worked so hard to earn, meaning he couldn’t leverage it to make more, and he’d have to start from ground zero again.

Let me clear something up though. I’m only talking about buying a personal property to live in. Buying a rental property or house hacking by renting out part of the property is a completely different thing and pretty smart. If you aren’t doing any of these things, then renting is actually a better idea. Most people find this hard to get their heads around as they just see it as money wasted every month. But the return Curtis could get on the deposit money that would have been locked away is far more valuable. I know this is the complete opposite from what a lot of older people will tell you. However, what most don’t consider is back in our day, it was much easier to buy a property as it required far less money down. Getting a mortgage is kind of like a locked savings account. So it’s only a good idea for people that are just going to waste the money or leave it sitting in a bank account doing nothing. Luckily, Curtis reinvested the money back into his business Tillbury Multimedia Limited, which currently generates about a million dollars each year. So, if you want to be rich, then you have to find a better investment vehicle than a house to live in.

2. The Latest Tech

Number two: the latest tech. Nobody really cares if you’ve got the latest iPhone or Apple Watch. Too many people upgrade to the latest tech items just because it looks cool or they think it makes them happier. I wore this so long to upgrade from my iPhone 3GS that the apps actually stopped working. I could normally deal with this without too many issues, but I was doing a lot of sales on eBay at the time and I needed to use the app, so there was a value to upgrading to a new model. However, instead of going out and buying the latest model, I decided to buy an iPhone 4, which is when my son had the latest iPhone 6S. He used to laugh at me using my older phone, but it did everything I needed it to do, and a newer model wouldn’t have made me any happier, as I just see it as a business tool. The truth is, while owning a useful device like an iPhone or an Apple Watch can be beneficial, upgrading to the newest version for the sake of the latest technology is not a wise financial decision if you’re aiming to become truly rich. Instead, focus on purchasing items that can have a much bigger impact on your life and avoid being drawn in by the marketing hype.

3. Investments You Don’t Understand

Number three: Investments you don’t understand. Let’s face it, too many people got into investing during the pandemic without really knowing what they were doing. They simply put their money into stocks and hoped the value would increase, which is a terrible idea. As Tai Lopez would put it, it’s all about knowledge. Knowledge of stocks, the market, Wall Street, and the trading tools that you’re using.

4. Gifts for a Partner

Number four: Gifts for a partner. I’m not saying don’t buy your partner gifts. I’m actually going one step further: I don’t think you should have a partner at all when you’re laying the building blocks for your empire. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I had a four-week rule. If I knew a girl I met wasn’t going to be “the one,” then a maximum I would allow was four weeks. I thought it was kind to allow them to move on, as it meant I didn’t have to buy any expensive presents as you aren’t really socially expected to buy any gifts if you’ve only been seeing her for a couple of weeks. According to the National Retail Federation, the average person will spend around $103 on Valentine’s Day gifts per year. Now, I know that doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but that’s just one occasion. You will need to budget about $100 minimum for birthdays, Christmas, and anniversaries as well. Let’s throw in the extra $15 a month for flowers and you’re looking at an extra $180. That’s over $580, and we haven’t even started on those little surprises throughout the year or times that call for bigger presents. We’ve all been there. I don’t want to come across as being cheap, but the only person I wanted to spend any money on was my future wife. I knew that would be an investment, but anything else was just a waste. When I was building my wealth, I wasn’t looking for anything long term because I knew I wasn’t the man I wanted to be yet. So, if you want to become rich, I suggest staying single and focusing on building your empire. You’ll have more time and money to invest in yourself and your future. And who knows, maybe you’ll find someone who shares your financial goals and ambitions along the way.

5. A New Car

Number five: A new car. Purchasing a new vehicle is, in fact, one of the very worst financial decisions someone can make and the silent wealth killer nobody talks about. Let’s do the math. For a mid-sized vehicle worth $25,000. If you don’t have enough money to buy outright, you may opt to get a loan instead. Assuming you have a good credit score and obtain a 3.5% interest rate with a $3,000 down payment and a $1,000 trade-in of your old car, you’ll be paying $382.02 a month for 60 months. However, you’ll also have to consider the depreciation of the vehicle. A new car loses around 22% of its value in the first year and around 55% over five years. This means that halfway through your loan, you’ll effectively be flushing $400 down the toilet every month for the next two and a half years, as you’ll never get that money back.

So, what’s the solution? Well, believe it or not, I didn’t buy my first brand new car till I was about 35 years old. Before that, I bought cars that were around five years old, such as Ford Escorts, Peugeot 206s, and Ford Focuses. As I knew they’d experienced the majority of their depreciation and they were well under half price. None of the cars I purchased lost more than 15% in value, meaning the person who bought the car when it was new took the biggest hit. The only reason I bought a new car when I was 35 was for my wife, who needed to do a lot of mileage, and I prioritized her safety over the loss in value. So, if you want to be rich, then you need to be smarter when purchasing a vehicle. You don’t want it eating away at your wealth month after month.

6. Impulse Items

Number six: Impulse items. You’ll never become the person you want to be if you can’t control impulse purchases. Let’s attack them one by one.

Firstly, stuff that’s on sale. It’s important to see past so-called sales. Often the sale price of a product is not actually a real discount, and the retailer is simply increased it above the recommended retail price for a week or so in one location. Alternatively, it may be a low-quality item that no one wants.

Secondly, my age old nemesis: designer clothes. I have nothing against buying quality clothes. In fact, I think it’s a good idea because they’ll look better and they’ll last longer. What I don’t like are designer clothes that only justify their expensive price tag due to the hype around the label. People only buy these brands for one reason: to impress others.

Thirdly, we have to talk about entertainment subscriptions. It used to be fine when we only had Netflix, but now there seems to be so many other streaming platforms. I only sign up for one at a time. I don’t have enough free time to watch everything anyway. So I just watch everything I want on each platform during a three-month window, then cancel, and jump to a new one.

Fourthly, the scam that is extended warranties. For example, two years is a pretty reasonable lifespan for an iPhone. So in reality, when you buy an extended warranty, you’re just paying really for one extra year of coverage. And by the time you get to that last year, you may have lost details of your warranty or even sold the item.

These impulse purchases might not seem like much in the moment, but when you add them all up, you realize how much they’re costing you.

7. Alcohol

Number seven: Alcohol. The most important thing you can do right now to gain an advantage over everyone else is to stop drinking. I haven’t really been properly drunk since a big family gathering when I was about 19 years old. They kept buying me drinks and I just found it so hard to say no. The drinks just kept coming, and I ended up very ill. I couldn’t work the next day and sat in bed thinking about the night before. It struck me, why would you drink alcohol when it makes you feel so bad? Furthermore, why would you drink when you’re at the height of your powers as a young person? This thinking has actually been backed up by a study from the University of Sussex. 857 participants took part in the Dry January campaign and abstained from alcohol for the entire month. The study found that 71% of the participants reported sleeping better, 67% had more energy, and 58% experienced weight loss. All of these things are very important for success when you’re younger, so why slow down your brain by drinking?