7 Things You NEED To Stop Buying To Get Rich

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]I traveled on private jets, drove a supercar, and wore a Rolex when I started my journey to become a millionaire.

[00:00:06]Sorry to break it to you, but that was a complete lie. And the problem is too many Kiwis are trying to look rich instead of actually being rich, which is why you're about to learn the seven things you need to stop buying to get rich. The surprising amount of their income that Kiwis just fritter away on absolute rubbish, and the one rule that keeps you sane while you save more. Now, Andrew, what is number one on our list of the seven things you need to stop buying if you want to be rich?

[00:00:35]>> So, I think one of the big things, I see this all the time, is people buy a big fancy house to live in. And I know some people are going to feel upset when they hear that cuz they think, I've earned a big house. I deserve the big house. I've worked for years, I've built the business, I should be allowed to do it.

[00:00:50]And when I say some people, maybe Ed Ed's got a nice fancy house, have you?

[00:00:53]What's your dress your house again?

[00:00:55]Um I've got a nice house, but I think what the issue is is that people want that at the start, right? They think, okay, if I'm going to be rich, I better buy myself a big nice house. Now, you can have a nice house, right? But, in my view, you've got to get rich before you go do that. So, let's use your example and say somebody did uh build a a great business. Yeah, fine. If that's going to make you happy, go buy the house. But the issue that I see is that people go and buy the big house, want to be rich, but now all of their income is going towards these massive mortgage payments, right?

[00:01:27]>> Yeah, and when I think about some of the clients that I've worked with, um they might have this uh milestone in their in their life and they inherit some money or or um they get a big bonus and they think, okay, now we've got some equity.

[00:01:39]They go back to double income after maybe dropping down to one income, having kids. All of a sudden they feel quite wealthy again. Then they go to the bank and the bank says, well, we can lend you up to 2 million bucks if you want to upgrade your house. Now, rather than allocate that money into assets, they buy a liability. Now, I say liability because your house doesn't generate an income and you have to make the mortgage payment. Yes, when you buy a rental property with 100% debt, you're probably putting some money in as well, but nowhere near the same level of contribution than if you're paying your mortgage. And then of course people trick themselves and they think, well, it's an investment though. I still I'm buying in Auckland. I've got a $2 million house in Auckland. It's going to go up in value. Yeah, but how do you get that money out?

[00:02:19]>> Well, we always say that your house isn't an investment, but it is an asset.

[00:02:23]It's an asset in that you could sell it and maybe pull some money out, but it's not an investment in that you can typically live off that. Now, one alternative is to stand out being a rentvester, something that both you and myself started by doing, right? Starting with the investment side and then eventually you can get the nice house you want, but get rich first. Don't buy all of the lifestyle stuff before you actually start building your wealth. And just a final point there as well. I think again, some people think, well, if I get all that stuff now, I can pay down that mortgage and that's great. But the problem is if you've got a mortgage for the next 20 years, it really shortens your horizon for having time to invest and a time in the market makes such a big difference. The second thing on my list is takeaway coffees and like these daily small purchases. You would not believe it. Do you know how much a a cat a coffee costs at the cafe at the bottom of our building in Auckland?

[00:03:16]$5.

[00:03:18]No. Are you living in 2000 You're living in 2019.

[00:03:24]They do not charge you $7.

[00:03:27]They do so. You are lying to yourself and to the nation, Andrew, cuz an oat flat white takeaway I don't buy that.

[00:03:34]costs $7 and I have decided that I am time I buy you an oat flat white. Well, you shouldn't cuz that's You're done. You're going to cut that out now, are you? I have started cutting that out. I'm like $7 is too much to spend on a takeaway coffee. $7 is the limit. I'm not doing it. And what I've seen is that the price of coffee really has got way higher.

[00:03:59]Uh the the average price across the country is now $5.20, up from under five bucks earlier. Now, if you're doing five coffees a week, yeah, across the year, we're talking about 1,300 bucks. And look, it's not just coffee that I'm talking about here, right? But it's all of the small unconscious spending. So, Hannah McQueen, who uh used to own Enable Me and talked a lot about budgeting, she had this rule even back in 2016, which basically said she, from what she could see, Kiwis typically fritter away about 15% of their income. So, if you've got a household take-home pay of 100 grand, then maybe that's $15,000 a year that you are unconsciously spending. And And sometimes that's on stuff you can't even remember buying. And I think that she might be right when New Zealand's average household savings rate is only 1.3%.

[00:04:57]So, the average Kiwi household is saving 1.3% of their income. So, it is highly likely that we are frittering our money away on lots and lots of just small things. Now, I'm not saying that you can't enjoy anything, right? But I'm just saying maybe we need to be a bit more conscious with our spending. And that comes to I know number three on your list.

[00:05:16]>> Yeah, number three. I feel personally attacked that you put this on my list.

[00:05:19]And this is impulse items. Now, I downloaded Temu so that I could purchase some things for Eliza. Now, as a result, yeah, yeah. As a result, I find myself going in there and just buying the odd thing here and there. And I'm not the only person that does that.

[00:05:35]So, over 1 million Kiwis now shop on Temu, right? That's crazy. That's one in every five people shopping on Temu. And the average Australian is spending $44 a week on impulse spending. That's almost 2 and 1/2 grand a year. Now, for Gen Z, it's actually much, much worse though. So, if you're Gen Z or Gen Y like me, so a millennial, um my my fellow millennials and I are spending $68 a week on average for just impulse purchases. For Gen Z, it's $74 per week, about 4 grand per year. And you think these people are probably at the early part of their life and their income's probably a bit lower as well.

[00:06:17]So, it's probably a a very high percentage of their take-home pay. And it's stuff that it's not going to make you wealthy, but also you probably don't care about later on as well.

[00:06:26]>> Well, look at the baby boomers. $9 a week is what they're spending on impulse purchases. Absolutely nothing at all, really. And it just makes you think, ah, maybe us younger people, I mean, do you count as a millennial? Excuse me, yes I do. Okay, well, us younger people, you know, we're just not as conscious about what we're spending money on, right? Um and the the issue is that when you add it all up, that is money we could have otherwise spent on shares or preparing for our future. And of course, you know, sometimes people say, well, if I'm going to save a house deposit and my and I'm only spending $25 a week on coffee, well, when you add it up, it's it's 1,300 bucks a year. Well, if I'm if I'm stopping that and saving up for a house deposit, it's going to take me 30, 40 years in order to to save that up just from a coffee. And so, duh, I'm just going to spend it. Now, that might be okay, but the issue is it's not just the coffee, is it? It's the Teemill purchases. And when you all add it all up, it's now 4 grand a year, not $1,300.

[00:07:30]And maybe there's some extra stuff in there as well. And so, um you can buy all of these things. You can buy impulse purchases, but get rich first or get financially comfortable first, and then you're going to be able to do it. And there's a really uh simple rule that you can actually use to save more and also not hate your life.

[00:07:47]And so, what we sometimes see couples do, as we sit sit the two members of the couple down, and we say, "Rightio, what are the three things that you're going to refuse to give up on, Andrew?" And you might say, "My daily coffee, or hobbies for the kids." Or you got one more. I've already given you two. What's your one other thing you're not going to compromise on?

[00:08:06]>> have said coffees, wine, and dinner out every now and then. Okay. Sweet. So, that's your three, and then we go to your your lovely fiance, Lauren, and we say, "What's the three things you're not going to compromise on?" And so, now we've got those >> Making the beard.

[00:08:19]So, now we've got those three things that are going to keep you both sane while you're cutting back on everything else.

[00:08:27]And then that just gives you the permission to cut back on other things cuz you've got those three things that that you are consciously getting um yeah, life satisfaction out of, right? Um but that's one way to keep yourself sane while you are cutting back on other things. And if you're enjoying this video, make sure you hit the like button because that's how we know which videos to do more of. Hitting subscribe that helps too. You guys have already helped us build the largest property investing community in the country, and we are so close to our goal of 50,000 subscribers. The fourth thing on my list are expensive clothes. Now, I'm going to tell you a story that I'm really embarrassed about, and I like telling you embarrassing stories where I've done really dumb things with my money because that just shows you guys that, "Hey, we haven't lived perfect money lives um and and we need to own up to that as well."

[00:09:16]But what I I did, or what I saw when I first started coming down to Christchurch a bit more cuz I live in Auckland, is I saw that there were a lot of my friends used to wear really nice suits, right? And they'd go and they'd get them custom-made and really nice fabric, and I thought, "Oh, I really want a custom suit, too. I want to, you know, tailored to my specific proportions, right? And so I thought, "Oh, I'll look so good." Anyway, so I went in there and saved up my money and and I'd already had like a much cheaper one made. It was like It was like very affordable. So I was like, "Oh, yeah, that's good deal. I'll do that." And I loved that suit so much that I thought, "Okay, I'll go get another one." Anyway, so I said to the tailor, "Well, don't bother me measuring me up because I love this one that that you've already made for me, right?" And so okay, I was paper money and I chose a fabric that was quite expensive. It was quite expensive.

[00:10:10]Yeah, it was $2,000 all up. All right?

[00:10:13]Yeah, but I thought I was going to look good. Now, it gets made, it gets sent over here, and I put it on.

[00:10:19]It didn't bloody fit, did it? Why not?

[00:10:21]Because two things. Two things. One, I'd been putting on weight at the gym purposefully to get [clears throat] bigger, but my other suit still fit me.

[00:10:29]So I thought it'd be fine. What I didn't realize is that linen, especially, um uh stretches over time and releases.

[00:10:37]Anyway, did I get my two grand back? No, I did not. I gave that suit away and I will never ever ever spend money on a custom suit again. It was an absolute waste of money and it pains me thinking about it. And again, I share that just so you guys know that we haven't lived perfect money lives. So I'm going to give up those expensive suits and maybe that gives you the confidence to to say no and stop spending money on something that, you know, you felt the peer pressure to buy as well. Did you ever wear it at all?

[00:11:05]I did wear it to I was over in Australia on holiday and I thought I'd I'd wear a a nice suit to go to this event that I was going to. I couldn't bloody sit down in it.

[00:11:17][laughter] It was so uncomfortable.

[00:11:20]That is so good. That's worth the $2,000. Now, the next one on my list is the laceless tech. Now, again, I am guilty of doing this, so I completely get it. But if If think about like an iPhone, which I tend to replace every time a new one comes out, purely because I'm on it constantly during the day, I'm justifying it already in my head, like I would tell someone not to do. But like the latest iPhone, the iPhone 17 Pro, what does that cost nowadays? It's a It's like two and a half grand, right?

[00:11:47]Now, if you compare that to a couple of models behind, like the iPhone 15 Pro, still great quality, but like half the price, like 60 about $1,200. And these face it, because they update the apps and they update all the systems and stuff like that. Yeah, it might be a little bit slower sometimes. Maybe you notice it, maybe you don't. But do you really need to sink that extra money?

[00:12:12]And given that, you know, they come out every year, you're basically just, you know, writing off the old one and spending money on the new one.

[00:12:19]>> It's It's like when you get the the iPhone, right? And it's a And it's a new one for you, whether you're you're getting it passed down from somebody else or you've actually gone and purchased it.

[00:12:27]>> No, like every time you get a new one, you're like, "Oh my god, I love it. Oh, it's so much faster. It's so beautiful."

[00:12:34]>> drop it three times.

[00:12:35]>> Well, you're so happy for the first couple of days, and then you're just old hat after that, right? And there are so many things in life that are like that.

[00:12:41]You get it and you think, "Oh, cool."

[00:12:43]You get these endorphins from buying something new. This is going to change my life. And then you find out that it doesn't, just like everything else, right? You get You get this like rush of happiness when you first get something, and then you just get over it after a while, and it's the same as everything else. That's why impulse spending just It's so addictive, cuz you want that extra hit of dopamine. And actually, what that Australian survey found before is that when times are tough, people start treating themselves as a way to lift their spirits, right? So when the economy's not going so well, we start doing little treaties treats for ourselves to make ourselves feel better, but actually it makes us financially even worse off. Maybe Maybe Lawrence got clinical depression, but the judging by the spending.

[00:13:27]Now, the sixth one on my list are gifts and activities. And one thing that really shocked me is that we had some investors come and see us and they wanted to to start investing in property. And one of the things I said is even though they earned really really strong incomes, they still found that their money was very tight. And so our advice is to them, "Okay, so what are some of the bigger things you're spending on?" I kid you not, this couple was spending $20,000 a year on their two daughters roller skating.

[00:14:03]Oh, yeah, I heard about this. And it's because they're spending on going to tournaments and traveling for those tournaments and buying equipment and and coaches and all of these things. And look, spending money on your kids, right? That's what a lot of people want to do. I know my mom spent money on my extracurricular activities and I really appreciate it even now, you know, 15 years later. But one of the issues is that if you're struggling to invest, if you're struggling to keep your money life going and make ends meet because you're spending $20,000 on roller skating when maybe five grand a year might do the trick, well, maybe that's not the best of your money best use of your money. And I know that our advisor said to them, "Well, maybe you need to put the girls on a budget. Maybe rather than 10k a year each, they get two and a half grand a year each."

[00:14:52]They laughed at her and said, "Well, the girls wouldn't accept that." And I was like, "But you're the adults." Now, again, I don't want to say say to anyone, "Oh, you need to spend less on your kids. That's the path to financial freedom." But if you're struggling and that's one of your big costs for this couple, it probably is, right?

[00:15:08]>> I Well, I think the key message is you have to choose what you're going to sacrifice on. So, don't don't say you're not prepared to do that if you also want to invest. One of those things has to give.

[00:15:18]Um and I think the final one for me is spending extra money on a fancy car.

[00:15:23]Now, this is the silent wealth killer because people again mistake an asset, i.e. a car, as, you know, oh, well, that's that's a good thing. It's not a good thing at all. As soon as you drive a new car off the lot, you lose 50% of the value in that first year. And then, around 15% the year after for the next 4 years. Like, that's huge. So, if you buy a 50K car using a loan and you're paying, say, 7.5% which would probably be a pretty reasonable interest rate on that kind of loan. Over the next 5 years, it's going to cost you 60K or more after the interest is factored in.

[00:15:58]So, you might think, "Okay, that's okay.

[00:16:00]Like, another 10K to have the interest and then I've still got the money in my bank or I can don't have to come up with that cash. That's a good deal." But, you're forgetting about the rate in which that asset is going down in value.

[00:16:10]You're basically just paying good money after bad.

[00:16:13]>> So, you might as well spend 60 grand all up on the car and it's only worth 20K once all is said and done, right?

[00:16:19]Whereas, I remember one of my favorite books that I always talk about on this channel, right? Uh, is Millionaire Next Door. And what they say is, "Well, why are you bothering spending money on a brand new car that you know is going to go down in value? Why don't you buy cars that are 3 or 5 years old that are still basically new, right? They're still perfectly fine. Just get it really nicely cleaned and then most of the depreciation's already happened. You're just buying somebody else's loss." Yeah. And look, if you've been putting off investing for your future, this might be a sign to to start considering it more. And one thing you might like to do is to start building a wealth plan with one of our financial advisers at Opus Partners cuz they're going to show you how much you need for your financial future and what you can do about it. I'll drop a link down in the description or you can book at opuspartners.co.nz.

[00:17:07]So, now you know the seven things that are quietly draining your income, but there's one money mistake that goes even [music] deeper than all of these and it is the number one money mistake that I see keeping [music] Kiwis poor. That's what you're going to learn about in the next video. Click the video on screen and watch it now.