You can’t out-earn bad spending habits

A lot of people are in the financial situation they’re in because of their choices. Period.

Not everyone, but a lot.

I used to be one of them.

You’ll hear things like:

“Well I don’t have much money and I’m about to get evicted…” but also “I just put Coachella tickets on Klarna, I’ll figure it out later”

“Money is tight right now…” but still dropping $50 on fast food without thinking twice

“I’m broke…” but still buying cigarettes or other habits that drain cash every day

That stuff adds up fast. People just don’t want to look at it.

I’ve also lost money in the stock market. That wasn’t bad luck. I treated it like gambling and paid for it.

The biggest shift for me wasn’t investing. It was fixing my spending.

I cut out a lot of unnecessary spending, started saving consistently, and actually paid attention to where my money was going.

Now I’m at about $80K saved and should hit $100K in a HYSA by September.

Most of that came in the last few years once my income went up and I stopped wasting money. I kept my expenses low, didn’t upgrade my lifestyle, and just kept putting money away.

Looking back over the last 15 years, I easily could have saved another $100K if I had these habits earlier. If I could go back, I would.

No windfall. No luck. Just behavior change.

No one made me do it, and no one was coming to bail me out either.

If you want to have something, you have to control what you spend. I used to hate hearing that, but it’s true.

You can’t out-earn bad habits.

If you’re struggling, don’t just beat yourself up. Be honest about your spending first, then work on increasing your income.

For context, here’s how my income changed over time:

2012: $46K (restaurant)
2013: $36K (retail)
2014: $56K (two jobs)
2018: $40K (retail)
2021: $70K (software engineer)
2024: $120K (software engineer)
2026: $140K (software engineer)

Had a few unemployment gaps in there too, nothing over 6 months.

Progress wasn’t fast, but changing how I spent money made the difference.