The 12 Worst Money Habits (Ranked!)

23:52A dollar for dollar match is free money. Now, for some of you who are new to employer matches, some places will do what is called a vesting schedule, meaning that if you're at your employer for one year, maybe you get 50 % of your employer match vested. Then for two years, maybe it's 75%. Then at three years, it's 100%. So what that means is that the amount of time that you're with your employer, that is how much and what percentage of your employer match you are going to get invested, meaning guaranteed staying inside of your 401k plan. And so many times, even if you have those vesting schedules, you are still getting that free money.

24:28And I want you to take advantage of that as much as possible. So always try to take advantage and get your full employer match at the bare minimum, whatever they will match you at. If you put 7 % in and they give you 3.5 % for free, do it. If you put 3 % in and they will match you at 3%, do it. But whatever they do, it is absolutely free money. So I'm going to put this on the board at number 10. It is not the worst possible thing you could do if you're investing and doing some other things, but it is something that you got to make sure that you are taking care of if you are not already. It is a six-figure decision over the course of a 30-year career if you do not take advantage of that employer match.

25:02I want you to understand that. No matter what you're making, you can do a really, really cool thing with that employer match. All right, the next one is going to be sports gambling. Now, this is one that I think is very interesting in today's day and age. In fact, a study just came out showing that Gen Z is foregoing retirement contributions to be able to gamble more in sports. And Americans legally wagered about$167 billion on sports in 2025, generating almost$17 billion in sports book revenue. That revenue is money that bettors lost before the books even pay their operating expenses or taxes.

25:44meaning$17 billion. And guess what? They're already saying this year in 2026 at the time of recording this, that number is gonna be way bigger. This is becoming a problem. And in fact, there was a study done by NBER that people who do that online sports typically have lower savings and investment rates than people who avoid it. And financially constrained households saw higher credit card debt, lower available credit and more overdrafts. So this is simply not replacing entertainment spending. It is displacing saving and investing. And I think that's where the real problem is with this and why I'm getting increasingly concerned.

26:21I've talked about this in the past on past episodes. Sure, I will wager$5,$10,$15, even$20 on a football game from time to time. But as of late, I have actually pulled back. And as of late, I really have not bet much at all. Because A, I want to set an example for you guys. I just don't think it's an intelligent thing to do. I don't think it's smart to do. long-term if you feel as though you are someone out there who is going to fall prey to this. I don't have a problem if you bet$5,$10, even$20 if you can afford it. But I do have a problem if it becomes something that eats into your retirement savings or it becomes something that eats into your long-term wealth building savings.

27:01If you're doing it as part of your entertainment budget and you enjoy it, hey, it makes a game more interesting for you or you having fun with it, absolutely fine. But if you're someone who feels as though you're getting deeper and deeper into the hole or you're not saving and investing and you're betting over 20 bucks on specific games multiple times a week, my friends, that is a huge, huge problem. Vegas is always going to win. Now, sure, you may hit it a couple of different times, but the odds are not in your favor. And the sooner you realize that the odds are not in your favor, the better off you're going to be financially long term.

27:34Guess where the odds are in your favor? Long term investing over the course of decades. so you need to realize that this is not something to play with whatsoever you are playing with fire you are playing with something that has been proven time and time again to cause people to have financial ruin so here's the way to combat against this one what i do is i set parameters meaning i will not bet more than a certain amount on a specific game and i will not bet but more than a certain amount in a given month. So for me specifically, a lot of times, I will set these parameters up where starting off, maybe it's five bucks and then you can have your fun and maybe it's not as fun for you if you're only betting five bucks because you don't win as much.

28:19Well then, so what? This is not something to get into where you are just blowing money left and right. How is it fun to lose$200 every single weekend? It's not. And maybe you win it a couple of different times and you feel as though you're gonna stay on top and you get that rush going, it's all just emotions. It's all just emotions coming into play. So instead, what I want you to do is I want you to set parameters, set limits, and make them extremely modest. If you're going to do this, make them modest. Now, if you've had a problem with the past, you need to delete all the sports betting apps and never do it again.

28:55You get one chance. And if you've had a problem or you feel as though your family's gone into debt, you are sacrificing your family's future so that you can have a little bit of entertainment and sports gamble and get that flutter inside. So I need you to make sure that you were avoiding this at all possible. So this is engineered to be addictive. It is engineered to be something that you can, you know, take on and feel as though you are winning when you're not. And so I want you to ensure that you were avoiding this at all costs. So second rule with this is you have these parameters in place.

29:25Every dollar you bet, you also invest the same amount, if not double, minimum. In addition to your retirement goals, So if I contribute$100 to my betting account, I'm also going to contribute$100 to my taxable brokerage account. If you can't pay double, you can't afford it. That way, you balance this out a little bit. Let me just say this really quick. If you're in debt, like credit card debt or anything else, and you are sports gambling, boy, oh boy, is that the wrong mentality. You are going backwards financially, and you're deciding to put dollars towards something that will not work out in the long run.

29:59It's not a wise decision. You want to be prudent with your finances. You want to make sure that you are making wise decisions when it comes to this. So I'm going to put this on the board because the problem that is increasing over time here is number three. The reason for this is because the sports gambling industry is getting worse and worse. The stats that are coming out on this is getting worse every year. At first, this seemed to be for a lot of people harmless, but now it's getting worse and worse. And so if you have an addiction, also please call, get help. There are lines that will help you literally for free, gambling lines.

30:29So please make sure that you do not have a problem when it comes to this stuff. All right, the next one is cashing out your retirement. So cashing out your retirement is stealing from future you. And I have been amazed at how many people have asked me questions on if they should cash out their retirement to do this or to buy a house or to do this. And in reality, if you can avoid it, cash out your retirement because interrupting compound interest unnecessarily is one of the worst things that you can do. And if you're someone who feels as though you're going to dipping into your retirement as an option, I want you to reframe your brain and say to yourself, ah, this is absolutely not an option for me.

31:07This is not something I'm going to do moving forward. And in fact, I really want you to make sure that you never, ever, ever do this unless it is the worst possible situation that you're ever in. There's nothing else you can do. Okay. So cashing out your retirement is something I don't want you to do. So the Federal Reserve found that 4 % of retirement account holders permanently withdrew retirement money in 2025 and another 5 % borrowed from their accounts. Some common reasons why this happened was job changes. So cashing out a small 401k instead of rolling it over. So that's mistake number one, is if you do change jobs, understand that you can roll your 401k over to your new job and or do a rollover IRA at Vanguard or Fidelity.

31:46You don't have to do this where you cash it out. Instead, roll it over. That's going to be one thing to do. So that was just lack of financial education there. A second reason was emergencies, meaning people didn't have an emergency fund in place, so they have to reach out and grab their 401k or their IRA and cash out retirement in that way. Listen, that's why we have you have an emergency fund. It protects against you having to do that. Three is they are using the account as just a general savings bucket, and they pull, contribute, pull, contribute. And that's the third mistake that you can make.

32:16This is a long-term wealth-building tool. This is not something that you dip into over and over again. and said, you want to make sure that when it comes to your 401k, you are utilizing this as a long-term wealth building tool. Now, if you have a true emergency, like you are out of options, you have nothing left, maybe that's something you do, but I probably would say I would never, ever, ever want you to do this. So we're going to put this as number eight because I really don't want you to do this. This is one of those things that is going to take you backwards financially, but I'm going to put it at number eight because there are things that we're going to be talking about here that can be worse, and if you do a couple of these things, it'll help you avoid cashing out that retirement account, which is the next one.

32:56So let's talk about the next one, which is having no emergency fund, which along those lines is the next one. The next one is having no emergency fund. So the emergency fund is not designed to maximize your return. It is not designed to help you retire. It is to stop you from making terrible financial decisions when life happens. In 2025, only 55 % of adults had three months of expenses saved. And in fact, a huge portion of adults do not have$1 ,000 saved up in cash. This is where I really want you to make sure that you are thinking through this process really quick. Imagine your money is a castle and you don't want anything to disrupt the lifestyle of folks within that castle.

33:39And so what you wanna do is if intruders are gonna come and try to steal money that is inside your castle, you want to make sure that you have something there protecting them. And so you want to build what they call a moat. Now, when you build a moat around a castle, this is basically building a waterway around a castle so enemy intruders can't get to the castle. That's what your emergency fund is. It is the moat that protects your finances. It is the guard that protects your finances so you have the ability to be able to build wealth. So the Fed came back with some data, which was the most common large unexpected expenses.

34:1530 % was major vehicle repairs or replacement. 22 % was major home and appliance repair. And 21 % was a major medical expense. So that tells you some interesting data right now. Your car, your home, and your health are the three areas where you are most likely gonna have an emergency. The fourth would most likely be job loss, where these are major emergencies that are gonna pop up over and over again. Cars are going to break. AC units are going to die. You may have to run to an ER because your kid slips and falls or breaks their arm or you get hurt. And so you got to make sure that you are prepared for this stuff.

34:55It's not if an emergency is going to happen, but when will an emergency happen? And so making sure you have that emergency fund in place is really, really important. Now, our goal here is we want you to have an ultimate six-month emergency fund, meaning one month of expenses, pay off high interest debt, then save three months of expenses, then ultimately get to six months of expenses inside of your emergency fund. If you don't have that in place yet, then working towards that is really important. If you haven't checked out our episode called the 136 method for saving and managing your emergency fund, make sure you check that episode out because that gives you the full guide on exactly how to do this.

35:28Now, this fund is what keeps life's inevitable problems that are going to keep popping up. It keeps them at bay. It keeps you stress-free. It keeps you anxiety-free. It's one of the best things for your financial mentality. And so I want you to make sure that you have an emergency fund in place. And so we're going to put this on the board as number six. If you don't have one in place, that is a huge problem. I want you to start working towards at least first your one month emergency fund and start working towards that right now. Do that today. It's one of the most important things that you need to do if you do not have it on hand yet.

35:56And so that, my friends, is going to be a big, big deal. My relationship with money has changed a lot over the years. Early on, I thought building wealth was about making more money. Now, I know it's really about having clarity. When you know exactly where your money is going and whether you're on track, you make better decisions. That's one of the reasons I love Monarch. It's the personal finance app that tracks everything from your accounts and investments to your savings goals and spending. So you can see your entire financial picture in one place. One habit that's made a huge difference for me is my five-minute drill every single morning.

36:34I open Monarch, check my spending, investments, cash flow, and net worth, and I'm done in just a few minutes. It gives me confidence that nothing is slipping through the cracks. I also love the AI Weekly Recap because it'll flag spending changes, upcoming expenses, or shifts in my net worth before they become a problem. Instead of reacting after the fact, I can make adjustments early. It really feels like having a financial advisor in your pocket. Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code PFP at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code PFP.

37:14It's kind of amazing how much can change in just a single year. Every summer, the kids are a little bigger, a little more independent, and life looks a little different than it did the year before. And it reminds me that while we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it. That's one of the reasons I like PolicyGenius. See, PolicyGenius isn't an insurance company. They're an online marketplace that lets you compare life insurance quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. And their licensed team helps you compare coverage, prices, and terms, answers your questions, and even handles the paperwork so you can get the right policy without the hassle.

37:53For me, having life insurance isn't about expecting something to happen. It's about knowing my family is protected so I can actually enjoy these moments together instead of worrying about what comes next. And with PolicyGenius, you can find 20-year life insurance policies starting at just$276 a year for$1 million of coverage. Head to PolicyGenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's PolicyGenius.com. All right, the next one is lifestyle creep. So one of the biggest reasons that people who are high earners or people who are regular earners do not become wealthy is because of lifestyle creep.

38:32What is lifestyle creep? This means that you begin to make more money. And let's say, for example, you start your career making$50 ,000 per year. Then you get a$20 ,000 raise and you get a promotion. And so now you're making$70 ,000 per year. And when you were making$50 ,000 per year, maybe you were spending$50 ,000 per year. But then you get that raise in promotion and now you have$70 ,000 per year coming in. and all of a sudden you increase your lifestyle. Maybe you get the nicer car and you take on the new car payment. Maybe you get the nicer apartment and you start to take on a higher rent payment.

39:04Maybe you start to buy some nicer clothes and you start to get used to this beautiful lifestyle. And then all of a sudden, before you know it, you're spending$70 ,000 per year. So you're still living paycheck to paycheck, even though you started to make more money. But then all of a sudden you're doing well at work. You're crushing it. You're working hard. You're working your butt off every single day and you get another promotion. And now you're making$100 ,000 per year. And all of a sudden, you're like, wow, I have some extra cash on hand. Let me go spend it. And so you take more lavish vacations.

39:33You take on more car payments. Maybe you buy a boat. Maybe you buy a brand new truck. Maybe you buy the brand new luxury SUV. You got to have the luxury SUV. And all of a sudden, you start to take on more payments and increase your lifestyle again to$100 ,000. Well, as you can see, you're not taking any portion of those raises and any portion of those increases. and putting them towards your long-term wealth building. So the longer you do this, the more you are just working on a hamster wheel. You are working on the rat race and you will never, ever be able to retire. I'm gonna say this again to everybody in the back.

40:05You need to understand that every single time you get a raise, if you don't take a portion of that raise and put it towards your financial future, you are literally keeping yourself on the hamster wheel. You are literally getting up every single day, going to work, driving through traffic, working for your boss, driving home, getting back, making dinner, having the same old day every single day. And that day is never going to end unless you decide to prioritize financial freedom. The moment you decide to prioritize financial freedom is the moment all of that can change. Everything in your life can change, but you have to prioritize that first.

40:43And lifestyle creep is the biggest culprit of this. Some lifestyle creep is good. Let's get real. We start to get promotions. I want to spend a little more of myself. I want to buy myself some cool things. I want to be able to spend more and get the appetizers when I'm out to dinner. I want to be able to buy the nicer, safer car for my family. I want to upgrade my house so every child in my family has their own room. I want to be able to do cool things. And you should be able to do cool things. Lifestyle creep is good, but using all of your raises, all of your bonuses towards your lifestyle, that's the problem.

41:17So how do you fix this. Well, I like the 50-50 rule. Every time you make more money, put 50 % towards investments and savings and 50 % towards your lifestyle. That way you can spend some and you can also take a portion and it goes towards future you. This is how you have balance with your money. This is how you're responsible with your money. This is how you have the ability to do the things that you actually want to do, but also save for your financial future. And as you start to increase your income, the more you increase your income, the more you can put at that 50 % towards your lifestyle.

41:46So is how you have that balance and how you save for that balance. So I'm going to put lifestyle creep on the board at number five, because I think this is one many of us have experienced. Probably every single person listening to the show has experienced this in the past. And so you just want to make sure that you were on top of this before it gets worse. That's all you really want to do. And if you balance lifestyle creep, it's okay in some senses, but it is not the thing that you want to take over your life. And for many high earners, you may be making good money and you're making $200 ,000 per year,$250 ,000 per year, but your lifestyle creep has gotten out of control, this is why.

42:20This is why you're still in that position and why you need to work on fixing it. Okay. All right. The next one is a good one. Waiting until you invest to make more money. This is one of the most common things I hear is I'll invest someday. I'll invest when I make more money someday. But the most valuable asset that you have as a young investor, the most valuable asset that you have today is the amount of time that you have left on this earth. And the longer your time horizon is, the more wealth that you can build with small amounts of money. You see, small amounts of money over time can grow to very large amounts of money.

42:59And so over the course of, let's say, for example, you have$500 per month. Well,$500 per month at an 8 % rate of return over 40 years is going to turn into$1.75 million. Over the course of 30 years, it's going to turn into$745 ,000. And over the course of 20 years, it's going to turn into$295 ,000. The same monthly amount, but it's just doing it longer means that compound interest really starts to kick in. Now, only 61 % of adults had a tax advantage retirement account, like a 401k, an IRA, or a Roth IRA over the course of the last year. And you do not want to wait until you are doing well, or you have enough saved up for you to be able to start investing.

43:40I don't care if you have$50. I want you to get started today. And I want you to put that$50 loud and proud inside of your brokerage account or your Roth IRA or your HSA or your 401k. And I want you to say, this is going to be a part of my retirement plan one day. Then as you get that raise, like we just talked about with lifestyle creep, you take a bigger chunk of it and you start to put it towards your investments until you get to the point in time where you're at least investing 20 % of your income. That's the goal. Let's get our investment train going. Let's roll that snowball downhill so it can grow larger and larger and larger.

44:14Small amounts of money, I want you to say this over and over again, small amounts of money over time can grow to very large amounts of money. So start planting those seeds. Every dollar you invest is a seed. And you want to build this orchard that you can live off forever. And imagine you plant a bunch of seeds and one day you want these to grow into apple trees. And once those apple trees and that orchard is done, you never have to buy food ever again. And you can live off those apples for the rest of your life. That's exactly what investing is. It's planting the seeds so that you can grow these apple trees that are gonna produce enough fruit where you never have to work again.

44:54So the sooner you start planting those seeds, the sooner you're gonna be able to be financially free. So I'm gonna put this on the board at number four because waiting for the perfect time to invest means that you're missing out on your most valuable asset, which is time. All right, the next one is carrying a credit card balance month to month. Oh boy, I'm going to have to think about this one for a second. What do we have left? We have one and two left. All right, so carrying a credit card balance month to month, this is arguably one of the most important things that you need to avoid at all costs.

45:27Credit card debt can cost you anywhere from 15 % to 35%, and I've seen even higher as of late, every single month. You can't find a single investment that is going to give you some sort of return that is like that. And so the first thing you want to do is attack credit card debt with a vengeance. Get after it as fast as you possibly can, because that is going to ensure that you avoid high interest debt. And that is one of the pants on fire emergencies that you need to make sure that you have. Here's the crazy part, and this is what's scary to me, is Americans held$1.26 trillion in credit card balances as of Q2 of this year alone.

46:05The Fed found that 45 % of credit card owners carried a balance of at least once during 2025 and$10 ,000 at 25 % is roughly$2 ,500 per year in interest before you make a dent in principle. So let's think about this for a second, okay? Let's say you go out to eat with your friends. every hundred dollars that you leave on that credit card means you're going to be paying 125 for that dinner but it gets worse because it starts to compound against you and it gets worse and worse and worse and so what you need to realize is that carrying a credit card balance is a pants on fire emergency you need to act as though you have pants on they're on fire and if you don't stop drop and roll it's going to catch the rest of your body on fire i know that's graphic but that's exactly what's happening financially when it comes to credit card debt.

46:55It is by far the worst thing you can do. In fact, I'm putting this at one right now. I'm going to say it, I'll put it on the board at number one because this is one of those things that you absolutely cannot do. And if you have revolving credit card debt that you keep adding to and paying off a portion, but you keep adding to it and paying off a portion, I need you to cut up that card as fast as you possibly can. If you cannot pay the statement balance in full, rewards and points and all this other stuff doesn't matter. You need to avoid credit card debt at all costs, no matter what it takes for you to be able to do that.

47:25So this is number one for sure on my board. It is the worst possible thing that you can do is have credit card debt. And if you're scared of this, you're like, I don't even want to open a credit card because I don't want to go into debt, then don't. Now, I pay my cards off weekly. If you want to stay on top of your cards, I pay them off every single week. I just did it just before I started recording this episode. It's Friday right now. And every single Friday, my wife and I, we pay off our credit cards in full. Every single Friday. I do the same exact thing with my business. I pay off my cards in full every single Friday.

47:53The reason for this is because it can get out of control without you even realizing it. And if you don't stay on top of them, then you will feel a month or two throughout your life where it's going to be like, oh, my credit card's a lot higher than I thought it was going to be this month. The more time you have between paying them off, the harder it is to manage. It just is for anything in life. And so I want you to pay them off in full on a weekly basis. That's part of one of my money routines. We're going to have some conversations in Master Money Academy and some master classes on money routines.

48:21But it's one of my money routines that I make sure that I do every single week because I feel better. My anxiety and stress is gone. And in reality, it just keeps me on top of everything. Does it improve your credit score? No. But it keeps you on top of everything so you never, ever carry a balance, which is the most important thing.

48:39Lastly, the last one we have on the list is spending everything you make. So the last spot we have on the board is number two. So we're putting this as number two. this is arguably one of the most important habits on the board as well, is making sure you don't spend everything that you make, making sure you avoid the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. And it really doesn't matter how much money you make. If you spend all of your money, you will never get ahead financially. You can make$900 ,000 per year, but if you spend$900 ,000 per year, you are no better off than the teacher who makes$50 ,000 per year, but spends$40 ,000 per year.

49:11They are way better off than you ever will be. And so you need to understand that income does not equal wealth. What equals wealth is the amount of money that you put in income-producing assets or assets that go up in value over time. And so only 55 % of adults had enough emergency savings to cover three months of expenses in 2025. And the goal is simply not to increase your income. It is also to increase the gap between your income and expenses. So as your income increases, you got to make sure that you do that. A higher earner with no gap is in the same position as a low earner that has this gap in place that we just talked about.

49:46And so this is why this is at number two, because one of the most important things that you need to make sure that you are taken care of is making sure that you do not spend everything you make and avoiding that paycheck to paycheck cycle. I was in the paycheck to paycheck cycle. And sometimes when you're not making good money, then you are in the paycheck to paycheck cycle and need to increase your income. But sometimes when you're making good money, you need to decrease your expenses. It depends on where you are in life, but those are the two ways to get out of this cycle and get out of that paycheck to paycheck cycle.

50:12All right, so here's the final board. Number 12 is trying to look wealthy. Number 11 is ignoring fees. Number 10 is missing your employer match. Number 9 is using buy now, pay later. Boy, oh boy, do I hate that. Number 8 is cashing out retirement accounts. Number 7 is financing everything based on the monthly payment. Number 6 is having no emergency fund. Number 5 is lifestyle creep. Number four is waiting to invest. Number three is sports gambling. Number two is spending everything you make. And number one is carrying credit card debt. Let me know what you think in this list down below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

50:48And what order would you do it in if you completely disagree with me? Let me know on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube, or any other podcast player that you were listening to. Would love to hear your thoughts. If you like these episodes where we're having a little fun ranking things, let me know down below as well. and we've got some really, really cool episodes coming out. So make sure you're subscribed on this podcast. Also, if you want to dive deeper with me and you want to get help from me, directly working with me in Master Money Academy is the way to go. You could check out the link down below if you want to learn how to invest and build wealth for your family's financial future.

51:20If you've got cash just sitting there and you want to learn how to invest, make sure you click the link down below and I will help you through that process. Also, if you want to get one-on-one help from me and one-on-one coaching, please shoot me an email and let me know. We are launching some really cool stuff when it comes to this. And I would love to hear from you because we are only taking a select few of people when it comes to this program that we basically have put together that will transform your finances. Now you have to make over$100 ,000 to your qualify, but if you do make over$100 ,000 per year as a household income, then make sure that you click the link down below and we will have a application available for you to see if you qualify.

51:59So let me know with that as well. We will have that linked up down below. Thank you, everybody, for being here. We truly appreciate you, and we will see you on the next episode. I didn't like what you said, Odin pauses, about the future. This is the love story of real hinge couple Odin and Edward, written and read by me, Curtis Garner. Listen to the free audiobook now.