the painful money mistake that's keeping most people broke

If you don't want to be like everyone else, then you have to avoid the number one wealth killer that nobody talks about. Take a look at this chart. It shows how the average person spends their money each month. And believe it or not, one of these categories is quietly killing your chances of building wealth. So, let's uncover it together. First up, housing. This is the biggest slice of the pie. So, it's definitely the wealth killer, right? Well, although paying rent or a mortgage is expensive, at least it provides you with a place to live. Next, taxes. Nobody likes these. Well, unless your name happens to be Gary Stevenson, but let's not get into that. Next, utilities and household expenses. They're not fun to pay, but you can easily get them down by calling around for the best deals. How about all of these? There are so many of these little expenses, but most of them are flexible. So, that leaves us with one section left. Can you guess what it is? transportation, car payments, insurance, fuel, repairs, parking, all for something that goes down in value every single day. The average new car costs nearly $48,000. It's not an investment. It's not building your wealth. And in most cases, it's just a financial black hole on wheels. That's why out of all of these expenses, transportation, specifically your car, is the number one wealth killer. And it's only getting worse.

There's been an absolute explosion in the amount of money people owe on their cars. It's honestly getting out of control. Let me show you what I mean. In 2005, total auto loan debt was sitting at $720 billion. 5 years later, it reached $850 billion. Fast forward to 2020, it's rocketed all the way up to 1. 38 trillion. And in 2025, we're sat at an all-time high of $1. 62 trillion. This has led to more people than ever being what I like to call car poor. This is when you're making just enough to cover your car payments, but not enough to build wealth at the same time. It's like you're trapped on a treadmill that never slows down. But why get on this treadmill in the first place? Well, more people than ever care about their image, and driving a nice car is one of the quickest ways to impress other people. The car industry spends billions of dollars convincing you that a new car is going to transform your image, confidence, and maybe even your love life. They don't show you sitting in a traffic jam on a rainy Tuesday after getting slapped with a $600 repair bill. Clever marketing makes you feel like success is finance, but really, it's a lie you're being fed to keep you trapped. Look at the Cyber Truck. That wasn't sold on practicality or daily use. It was sold on the image of power and looking like you're straight out of a sci-fi film. Social pressure fuels this, too. Nobody claps when you drive an old Honda that's paid off and running smoothly. But if you roll up in a brand new BMW on finance, people tend to give you approval and assume you're doing really well for yourself. I see so many young lads these days trying to look successful rather than actually trying to be successful, especially in cultures where car ownership gives you credibility. This need to look rich is what's causing this to happen. It makes people stretch their money so thin that the car actually ends up owning them. This car poor trap gets even worse for some people as they borrow more than the car is actually worth. It sounds silly and you might be thinking, why would anyone do that? But it's actually very common and it's called being in negative equity or upside down on the loan. In Q4 of 2023, nearly one in four people were in this exact position. So, this could result in you owing $40,000 on a car that's only worth $30,000. This means you're $10,000 in negative equity. I've actually had a lot of people email me after reading my free weekly newsletter saying it helped them avoid traps like this and even make a bit of extra money with some of the strategies I share. It's something I just do for fun and I really enjoy reading the replies. So, if you want me to send you those emails, too, I'll drop a link in the description. Anyway, if you want to avoid being car poor like most people, then you need to understand the true cost of that so-called affordable car sitting in the showroom.

I feel like a lot of people don't understand that the sticker price of a car is far from the true cost of owning that car. Let me explain. Take a look at this Honda Civic. It's the most commonly purchased car by people aged between 18 and 24 in America. And on the surface, it looks like a sensible choice. The sticker price is $27,867, which seems reasonable. However, let's dig into the true cost to own this car over 5 years. First up is depreciation. And on this car, that's $10,999. This cost starts the second you drive your new car off the lot as it drops 10 to 15% in value before you even make it home. Over 5 years, you'll lose nearly $11,000 to depreciation alone. Think about that. $11,000 just gone. All because time passed and your car got older. It's like paying $2,200 every year for the privilege of watching your money evaporate. Next is insurance. This is nearly $12,000 over 5 years, and that's a conservative estimate. This figure is based on a 40-year-old with a perfect credit score and a clean record. If you're a young guy, then this number is actually much worse. You're probably looking at double that. Sure, you can get this down a bit by calling them every single year, negotiating, and never staying loyal to one company, but it's still going to be a high cost. Even if you do manage to get a bit of a discount each year, then there's fuel. $6,415 just to keep the thing moving. This is actually getting so expensive. Now, for financing, this is the cost of not having cash up front. $4,719 over 5 years assumes you've got a decent credit score and put down 10%. But if your credit score is bad, then you could be looking at 15 to 20% interest rates instead of the 6 to 6 1/2% I'm showing here. That's why I always drill home the importance of building up a good credit score by having a credit card and putting small monthly expenses on it that you pay back in full at the end of each month. This means you avoid paying any interest and prove that you're a responsible borrower. Next up is maintenance. $3,224 over 5 years for oil changes, brake pads, tires, the list goes on. However, you can do this a lot cheaper if you learn a little bit about cars. I used to race in car championships, so I know the ins and outs of how to fix stuff on my car. This has saved me thousands over the years. I mean, if you learn to change your own oil, you'll save $30 to $50 every single time. And if you buy a basic OBD scanner for 20 to 30 bucks, you can diagnose most problems yourself instead of paying the garage $100 just for them to plug it in and tell you what's wrong. Then taxes and fees. This is just the government's cut. Road tax, registration, and inspection fees will come to around $2,800 over 5 years. Finally, we've got repairs. We'll budget $1,790 for this over 5 years. These surprise expenses are killers if you're not prepared for them. Even reliable vehicles like the Honda Civic will eventually need repairs beyond normal maintenance. This is exactly why you need an emergency fund of 3 to 5 months of your living expenses. Without it, a single major repair can derail your entire financial plan. With cars, it's not a matter of if something will break, it's when. So, let's add all this up. Drum roll, please. Your affordable $27,867 Honda Civic actually costs you $46,821 over 5 years. But it gets even worse than this, as this doesn't even consider opportunity cost.

This is where it gets really painful. Let's look at a 5-year comparison between someone that chooses the car and someone that chooses to invest. If you decide to choose the new Honda Civic in our example, then after 5 years, you'll only be left with $19,295. This is, of course, after reselling the car at its current market value. That's assuming it's been wellmaintained with minimal damage. That's a loss of over $27,000 in net worth. No wonder it's such a wealth killer. However, if you choose to take that same $780 monthly payment and stick it into an S& P 500 index fund based on the historical average return of around 10% per year, after 5 years, you'd have approximately $60,16. Of course, past results can't guarantee future returns. However, if it followed the same historical pattern, then that would be a gain of over $13,000 in net worth. That's a price difference of $40,721. That means by choosing a car over investing, you could be giving up $40,000 of wealth. Most people repeat this cycle every few years for their entire working lives. This is just one example of putting your money to work. You could choose to invest in starting a side hustle, buying a rental property, or even launching your own full-blown business. The key is getting your money working for you instead of against you. That's not even mentioning individual stocks and crypto. Although they are riskier investments, but to put it into perspective, if you'd invested that same $46,821 in Microsoft stock 5 years ago instead of the Honda Civic, you'd have seen a $224% total return, turning your money into over $150,000 today. Think about that for a second. The same money that bought you a depreciating car could have bought you a small fortune in one of the world's most successful companies. The point isn't that you should never own a car. It's that every financial decision has an opportunity cost. Every dollar tied up in something that loses value is a dollar that's not compounding in your favor. You might be thinking, if this is true, then why aren't more people investing? And to be honest, I think it's because they don't understand how to actually do it. Back in my day, it used to be very difficult as you had to phone up a stock broker. However, now you can use platforms like trading two and two right from your phone. You can set up an account, deposit some money, and then search for SNP 500 if you want to keep it simple and away you go. As I was planning on talking about Trading 212 anyway, I reached out to see if they'd be interested in sponsoring this portion of the video. They agreed and are also offering a free fractional share worth up to £100 to anyone using the code Tilbury in the promo code section of the app.

Now look, I get it. In many places, not having a car means losing opportunities. A study by Capital One actually found that 67% of people said owning a car opened up income opportunities they wouldn't have had without a car. So that shows that sometimes there is a clear opportunity cost of not having a car. So I'm not against getting one, but if you're smart about it, you can still free up hundreds per month to invest. So if you want to buy a car and invest, then here are the three steps I'd recommend following. Step one, buy in the sweet spot. This is when you buy a car that's 3 to four years old with 30 to 40,000 miles on the clock. This is great because you dodge the brutal firstear depreciation hit, but still get modern safety features, reliability, and often remaining warranty coverage. A car that costs $35,000 new might be $24,000 at this age. So that's $11,000 in instant savings you can invest instead. Step two, follow the 15% rule. Your total transport costs, including monthly payments, insurance, fuel, and repairs, should never exceed 15% of your monthly income. If you earn $3,000 per month, that's a maximum of $450 for all car expenses. Push past this and you're getting dangerously close to becoming car poor. Step three, keep it for more than 10 years. This is where you actually build wealth. Most people trade in their cars every three to five years, which is financial madness. Instead, buy once and maintain it like your financial future depends on it, because it does. If following these steps saves you $300 per month compared to buying new, that's $3,600 every year. Invested at 10% annual returns, that becomes more than $118,000 over 15 years. That could be the down payment on a house. all funded by making smarter car choices. If you want me to walk you through how to set up an investment account step by step, then I'm going to leave that video right up there. But don't click on it just yet. Make sure to subscribe if you want to grow your wealth. Okay, I'll see you over