Why Being Broke Has Nothing to Do with Math

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:01]psychology of why I'm broke.

[00:00:04]You know, I used to think that my bank account was a math problem. That is a my salary is greater than b which is my rent.

[00:00:19]Then c my sanity should be okay.

[00:00:25]Simple, right?

[00:00:28]But no, it's not. It turns out money isn't about a math problem. It's about psychology.

[00:00:38]It's about the glitchy hardware that is inside my head.

[00:00:47]Question is, why am I broke?

[00:00:53]Because my brain is still a hunter, a gatherer living in a world of limited time offers.

[00:01:07]First, there's a dopamine fix.

[00:01:12]You have had a bad day at work.

[00:01:17]Fix is simple.

[00:01:20]Treat yourself to a latte from any premium coffee shop.

[00:01:29]Two, treat yourself like it feels like a hug.

[00:01:38]You're lonely.

[00:01:41]A $600 gadget feels like a new personality, isn't it?

[00:01:49]We are buying things on impulses.

[00:01:54]We are buying short-term emotional gratifications.

[00:02:03]We are trying to use a credit card as a patch hole in our self-esteem.

[00:02:14]that only time or therapy can actually cure.

[00:02:23]Then there is a present bias.

[00:02:28]See my brain thinks future me is a complete stranger.

[00:02:37]Future me is a superhero who loves kale wakes up at 5 a.m.

[00:02:48]and never touches his savings.

[00:02:53]So, present me spends the rent money on a flight to a godforsaken place just because, hey, that's future me problem.

[00:03:14]I'm basically mugging my future self every time I see a sale sign.

[00:03:23]And then there is a comparison trap.

[00:03:27]And let's talk about a social mirror.

[00:03:33]We are walking around comparing ourselves behind the scenes footages to everyone else's highlight reel on Instagram or Facebook.

[00:03:52]We spend money we don't have to buy things we don't need. Warren Buffet once said, "If you buy things that you don't need, soon you'll have to sell things that you will need."

[00:04:18]We buy things to impress people.

[00:04:21]We don't even like we don't even know them just because they are on the reel and looks good. We are comparing ourselves to them and we are trying to be equal or better than them.

[00:04:34]It's a race to finish to a finish line that doesn't exist.

[00:04:42]Lifestyle creep is a silent killer.

[00:04:48]One day a $5 pizza is a luxury.

[00:04:54]The next day you feel like a failure if you are not eating organic avocados at a place which has a exposed brick walls. But you know the crulest part is the scarcity mindset.

[00:05:17]When you're constantly stressed about money, your IQ drops.

[00:05:26]You lose the ability to think.

[00:05:29]Think long term.

[00:05:32]You make daily survival choices like taking that highinterest loan that keeps you trapped in the very cycle you're trying to escape.

[00:05:51]I am not broke because I am bad at numbers. I am broke because I am a bad human. And until I stop letting my impulses drive the car, I'm just a passenger on a very, very expensive one-way trip.

[00:06:20]You know, to where?

[00:06:22]To nowhere. It's a very expensive trip to nowhere.

[00:06:30]We make key psychological mistakes.

[00:06:38]First, the tendency to overvalue immediate rewards over long-term goals.

[00:06:49]Two, using consumption to trigger temporary pleasure in our brains.

[00:07:01]Three, increasing our spending much sooner than our income increases.

[00:07:13]Number four, the drive to gain self-worth through status symbols.

[00:07:26]Have you ever seen a rich person walking around flashing his Rolex watch or a Louis Vuitton outfit?

[00:07:38]The fact is they don't.

[00:07:43]You might have seen them walking around in their pajamas at times or wearing a shirt that doesn't have any symbols on it. You know why?

[00:07:54]They know they are rich.

[00:07:56]They don't have to show it to anybody.

[00:08:01]On the contrary, we try to buy things to show the world and we are catching up to them.

[00:08:14]But instead, we are digging a hole for ourselves to poverty.

[00:08:22]You are not getting rich by buying these brand names, spending $500 on a purse or $500 on a shirt.

[00:08:30]that you don't have.

[00:08:33]The fact is, you are better off buying a $10 purse and keeping $1,000 in there in cash than to spend $1,000 on a purse and maybe have a credit card with a high interest rates.

[00:08:54]That are the those are the mistakes we are making. That's what is keeping us broke. We'll talk more in the next videos.