The Biggest Wealth Killers in Your 20s and 30s (Avoid At All Costs)

My dad got divorced three times. He made

good money, he worked hard, and did most

of the right things financially, but he

still felt like he was starting over at

age 50. That's because the biggest

wealth killers aren't always about what

you spend, but more about the life

decisions that can drain your bank

account without you even realizing it.

Today, we're discussing wealth killers

to avoid in your 20s and 30s, and I

promise that there are at least a few

ones you've never heard of before on any

other personal finance channels. The

first wealth killer that I wanted to

talk about today is just staying in the

wrong city, and this is one that nobody

really talks about, but geography might

be one of the most important financial

decisions that you can make. If you grew

up somewhere, and there's just not a lot

of industries that align with what you

want to do in your career, or perhaps

the median salary in your city is

dramatically lower than what you could

be earning somewhere else, then by

staying there, you are costing yourself

money. A city that's good for your

wealth usually has a few parameters. So,

number one, it has really good career

prospects, and number two, it has

quality people. You want to surround

yourself with people that are as

ambitious as you are with similar goals

to yourself. If you're able to start in

a city with a competitive salary, that's

going to be huge, because if you

compound that over time, that's going to

amount to a lot of wealth in your

lifetime. The first salary that you ever

get will become the anchor to every

salary negotiation that you have in the

future. Pretend you live somewhere in

the middle of America, say Kansas City.

Now, if you're from Kansas City, I'm not

trying to throw shade at you. I'm just

trying to illustrate that the median

household income in Kansas City is

$69,000 a year. If you were to move to

Austin, Seattle, Boston, or San

Francisco, the median jumps quite a bit.

So, Austin has a median household income

of $90,000 per year, and San Francisco

is over 135K just as examples. Even if

your cost of living goes up somewhat, if

you can keep it reasonable, you're

basically arbitraging the geographic

difference in salary every year. A few

years ago, I visited a gold factory in

Switzerland out of all places, and what

was really fascinating was that it was

really close to the Italian border. What

was fascinating was that a lot of people

that worked in the factory were from

Italy itself, and that was just across

the border. They wanted to work in

Switzerland because the wages in

Switzerland were just that much higher.

So, what you had were Italian workers

going into a Swiss gold factory, and

then they could take that wage and go

right across the border back to their

hometown in Italy, where the cost of

living was much cheaper. That's an

extreme example, but it's the same

principle of geographic arbitrage. The

other thing that's underrated here is

your network. So, I really do feel like

you can make a lot of money based on the

quality of your network and the people

that you meet. The opportunities we get

exposed to and the introductions we

receive, all of that is going to be

highly dependent on where you actually

live. You can always move back to your

hometown once you're established, but

building your career in a

low-opportunity city by default is a

huge wealth killer that many people

don't even talk about or think about,

and it happens a lot in your 20s and

your 30s. The second wealth killer that

we need to address is overfunding your

emergency reserves, and a lot of you

guys watching right now might fall into

this trap because you want to be good

with your money. In a typical emergency

fund, you want to have between three to

six months of living expenses saved up

just for emergencies. That's just so

that in case you lose your job, you

still have some sort of funds to rely on

so that you can pay your bills, live

your life, find a new job, etc. But, I

personally know people that keep 80,000,

100,000, 167,000

dollars in a high-yield savings account

just because number one, it makes them

feel better, and number two, they like

the idea of having a really big buffer

between them and a catastrophic

emergency. But, when you have 16 to 24

months of expenses parked in cash or

even more, that excess money is costing

you money in terms of opportunity cost.

Say your monthly expenses are $4,000 a

month, a 6-month emergency fund would be

$24,000, and a 16-month one would be

$64,000.

The difference there is 40K, and that

extra 40K sitting in a high-yield

savings account at 3.5% instead of being

invested in the market at roughly 8 to

9% could cost you about $145,000

over 20 years. The point here is just to

be intentional about how much you

actually need. So, anything beyond 6

months that you're holding in cash just

in case could just be a symptom of

having a scarcity mindset. I definitely

get if you want to be safe with your

money, but just make sure you're not

being too safe. All right, this next

wealth killer is probably the most

uncomfortable one on this list to talk

about and that is divorce. Now, just to

be up front, I am not married guys. I

have no business lecturing anyone on

relationships, but I did watch my dad

get divorced three times as I mentioned

earlier. I personally had a front row

seat to two out of the three divorces.

The first one was my mom's and the

second was his third marriage. And every

single time he got divorced, it set him

back financially quite a bit. In fact,

he would always tell me, "Son, I would

be so much more wealthy if I didn't get

divorced." And I think that really

emphasizes the fact that finding a good

partner is one of the most important

decisions of your life. The US has the

sixth highest divorce rate in the world

with 40 to 50% of married couples filing

for divorce. And the stat that's even

crazier is that the second and third

marriages have a divorce rate of 60% and

73% respectively. That means if you get

divorced the first time, the likelihood

that you get divorced a second or a

third time is much, much higher. And you

think with all these divorces that

people would get prenups, but that's

actually not the case either because

only 15% of married couples report

signing a prenup. Here are the top

reasons for divorce. They include lack

of commitment at 75%, infidelity at 60%,

too much conflict at 58%, and as you can

see here, financial problems, getting

married too young sit between 37 and

45%. So, why is this such a wealth

killer? Well, obviously the cost of the

divorce itself is quite expensive. It

can easily run you over $20,000. But the

hidden costs of divorce are actually

what add up to a lot more in my opinion.

So, let's say for example, you own a

home theater. If you were to split up,

that often means you have to refinance

the house at whatever the current

interest rate is, which as we've seen

recently has not been good. The other

option is that you just sell the house

and perhaps you're forced to sell it

during a bad market and you could lose a

lot of money that way. Then, if you have

retirement accounts, you have to split

those and those require a specific court

order and you might even face taxes and

penalties for early withdrawals. Don't

forget about moving costs as well, and

if you want to split up furniture or

physical assets, that can take a toll.

And if either one of you owns a business

that was started during the marriage,

that can get very, very complicated,

too. If you add up all the hidden costs

plus the normal cost of divorce via

legal fees, it could run you up to 50 to

$100,000 and even sometimes more if you

have a lot to lose. The bottom line is

that who you marry is unfortunately and

fortunately one of the most

consequential financial decisions in

your life. You want to get it right, but

if you get it wrong, you could undo a

lot of wealth building that you made in

your early years. The next wealth killer

you'll probably encounter in your 20s

and 30s is trying to look rich. There's

a phrase in the financial world that's

been around for decades, and it's called

keeping up with the Joneses. The reason

why this phrase has stuck around is

because it describes one of the most

fundamentally destructive behaviors that

we all fall for. And that behavior is

trying to keep up with your friends.

When you're going through life, it's

natural to want to measure your own

financial success against what other

people appear to have, like your

neighbors or your friends or just people

on Instagram. But if you do that, that's

when you've lost. A lot of what you see

is what people want you to see, either

in person or online, and that's usually

controlled and calculated as long as

they're aware of their image. All you

see is a highlight reel, but what's

really going on behind the scenes of

someone's life is something that you

don't really have access to. The new car

might be leased, the designer clothes

could be borrowed, and the apartment

that looks super bougie and chic on

Instagram might be taking up 60% of that

person's take-home pay. So there's this

term in Texas called the 30K millionaire

that I've talked about in another video,

and that's actually what we want to

avoid being. A 30K millionaire is an

individual who makes 30K a year, but

acts like they make millions,

essentially doing everything in their

power to flex on other people. According

to Urban Dictionary, quote, "Someone who

goes to the club and pays to get the VIP

table, but then they can't buy any

drinks because they spent all the money

on the table." What a 30K millionaire.

The lesson here is that the people that

look like they have money, they don't

have any money, and the people that

don't look rich are usually the ones

that are mega rich. I personally think

that if you've been building wealth for

a long time by staying focused, you stay

in your lane, and you live below your

means, you're going to get wealthier

than someone who is trying to constantly

compare themselves to others. The next

huge wealth killer, in my opinion, in

your 20s and 30s, is optimizing for

salary instead of equity, especially if

you have access to equity. This one is

super relevant if you're working for a

startup or a company that offers

stock-based compensation, but it's also

important enough to talk about in

general, as well. A lot of jobs these

days, especially if you're working for a

public company, a startup, or perhaps a

company on its way to IPO, they're going

to offer you equity as part of your

total compensation. During the

negotiation process, you usually have a

little bit of flexibility here. You can

either opt for a high base salary and

less equity, or you can have more equity

and less of a base salary. A lot of

people opt to take the higher base

salary because they want that cash in

hand, which gives them more cash flow

and allows them to perhaps rent a nicer

apartment, or perhaps inflate their

lifestyle a little bit. But, here's the

thing, a single good equity outcome can

actually outperform an entire decade of

salary or more. Of course, this is very

dependent on where you work. I

definitely understand that not everyone

is going to work for a company like

SpaceX, Google, or Nvidia. But, in most

cases, if you're offered some sort of

equity at a mid-size to large company,

and you believe in that company, it's my

personal opinion that I think you should

be taking more equity than cash, because

at least there's some upside with

equity. Now, of course, this all comes

with a huge disclaimer, which is that

you have to do your due diligence on the

company itself, and if it's actually

going anywhere. If your friend has a

brand new startup run out of his garage,

you might want to think twice about the

risk that comes with that role, and if

you want cash or equity instead. When it

comes to figuring out what your

potential equity is worth, I would do

two things here. So, first, I would

figure out what my equity is worth as a

percentage of the company. If a company

offers you 10,000 shares, that's not

very meaningful unless you know how many

shares are actually outstanding. But, if

you do the math and figure out how much

your shares are actually worth in terms

of equity, so you can get the total

share count from your HR department or

legal department. Uh hopefully, you can

then figure out what percentage of the

company you own. Then you can do step

two, which is to figure out what your

company is worth currently or what it

will be worth in the future if it ever

has a liquidation event or an IPO. If

you own 0.1% of the company and your

company ends up IPOing for say a hundred

million dollars, then your equity is

worth 0.1% of that or 100k. If you need

more practice with that sort of thing,

you might want to watch the Shark Tank

show because they actually often walk

through evaluation numbers quite often.

And I think if you watch that show

enough, you start to get it through

repetition. The next wealth killer is

staying on the sidelines when it comes

to investing. Now, if you are a

returning viewer on this channel, you've

probably heard me talk about this

concept before. When we wait around to

invest, that's the most guaranteed way

of not making any money. Here's the

hypothetical growth of $10,000 invested

in the S&P 500 index from 1996 to 2025.

You can see that if you're fully

invested all the days, your balance

would be over $192,000,

but if you miss just the 10 best days in

that time period, your gains would be

56% less. And the chart actually gets

way worse. So, if you miss 20 of the

best days, your gains are 74% less, and

if you miss 30 of the best days, you're

looking at 84% less gains. Your

portfolio growth is influenced heavily

by being invested on the best performing

days of the market, so you really can't

afford to lose any of those best days.

Unless you are retiring soon and need to

preserve your short-term wealth, it is

often better to simply try to stay in

the market as long as you can rather

than trying to time it for dips. I think

so often many people just stay in cash

or they just want to wait till the

market cools off a bit. I have a lot of

friends that do this, but I think that

if they aren't at least earning the same

rate as inflation, then their purchasing

power is getting eroded by inflation

itself. If you don't want to invest for

whatever reason, at the minimum, you

should keep cash in a high-yield savings

account while the interest rates are

decent. Now, speaking of something

that's not decent though, it's my next

huge wealth killer and it's something

called sunk cost loyalty. This wealth

killer is about the tendency to stay in

a job longer than you should just

because it's comfortable, familiar, or

you just like all the co-workers that

you work with. But, being loyal can

actually be a double-edged sword because

if you stay at a company too long and

they're only giving you, let's say, a 3

to 5% raise every single year, you're

just not going to make that much money,

especially if you're coming from a place

where you started off with a low base

salary. Let's say you got a job out of

college and you worked at, say, the

Marriott Hotel Group and you started off

with a salary of $60,000 per year.

Corvette, every 2 years they will give

you a cash raise of 3%. You work there

for 10 years and at the end of those 10

years, your salary is $70,000 a year.

And that's not really a big pay bump,

especially if you've been working for

some place for 10 years. For me

personally, I wasn't the type of person

to go into my boss's office and demand a

raise. I was personally taught that I

was just lucky enough to have a job,

especially because I graduated around

the financial recession of 2008. And I'm

sure many of you probably feel this way,

especially because of all the layoffs

that have been happening in America

right now. You probably don't want to

rock the boat with your employer. But,

the reality is that companies are just

not running around trying to give you

raises left and right. They are going to

give you exactly what they have to and

not a penny more. So, if you don't ask

for a raise or stick up for yourself,

you're just volunteering to give up your

potential value. One other strategy you

could perhaps try to get out of this

wealth killer is if you switch jobs

every couple of years, especially if

you're at the beginning of your career.

If you're able to switch jobs, you can

reset the base salary when you do your

negotiations and usually this will

result in a pay bump. According to a

study from LendingTree, workers who

switched jobs saw their average earnings

jump over 11% and in some cases even

upwards of over 30%. The idea here is

that you want to be switching every 1 to

2 years so that you either go laterally

in job title and increase your pay or

you go laterally in terms of pay

increase but increase your job title.

Either way, as long as you're

consistently doing this and increasing

your job title or your pay, by the time

you are in your mid to late 30s, your

salary has been bumped up multiple

times, and your wealth can continue its

own growth. The next wealth killer on

our list today is, you know it quite

well, it's called debt, especially high

interest rate debt, and especially if

you get into the wrong kinds of debt.

Now, there are some cases in which

borrowing money is actually okay, and I

believe that not all debt is bad. I

would argue that getting a mortgage to

buy a home or getting a student loan for

a degree that pays off later, these are

calculated uses of leverage. In these

cases, you're borrowing money to acquire

something that should appreciate or

produce income for you in the future, so

in those cases I think that is pretty

good debt. The problem in America is

high interest rate debt, especially

credit card debt or any debt that have

an interest rate of over 10%. The

average APR for credit cards is 22.11%

as of 2026, [clears throat]

and that means on a $10,000 credit card

balance, you will pay roughly $185 in

interest every month as part of your

payment. And if you have to pay these

interest payments, then obviously you

can't use that money for anything else.

Trying to build wealth for the future is

going to be really tough because a lot

of your money is going to go straight to

interest. So, if you're in your 20s or

30s, I think one of the best financial

decisions that you can make is to never

carry high interest rate debt from month

to month, and this is just going to save

you a lot of headaches in your life. All

right, this next one you absolutely have

to avoid, and it's a famous one on my

channel, and that's buying too much of a

car. If you've watched any of the other

car videos on my channel, you will know

that a car is a silent wealth killer

because not only are you paying car

payments, but you have to pay hidden

costs as well. Insurance, maintenance,

depreciation, and gas, those all add up

over time. The average price of a new

car in 2026 was over $51,000, which

translates to a new car payment of over

$750 a month, or that's about $9,000 a

year. Then if you add in insurance and

depreciation, the true cost of owning a

car is easily over a thousand bucks a

month. At an 8% average return, if you

invested those payments instead, in 10

years it would be worth over $213,000.

But that argument isn't the best one

because it also assumes that you would

give up driving a car all together. So,

instead, may I suggest that you drive a

reliable used car instead because the

average used car payment is $537 a

month, which is $213 less per month than

the new car. You're still going to have

the same commute, and your life pretty

much stays the same, but $213 a month

invested over 10 years is worth over

$45,000.

That's 45K for doing nothing different

except choosing a used car over a new

one. Our society attributes status and

prestige to having ride, and so much of

our identity is wrapped into what kind

of car that we drive. So, if that's the

case and that's you and you still want

to save some money, I still think it

makes a lot of sense to buy a car that

has around 30,000 mi or is around 3

years used. You're still getting a great

deal on the car, you're driving a car

that's not too used, so it still seems

brand new, and you're going to save

money on your total cost of ownership.

So, out of all these wealth killers,

which one do you identify with the most

in this video? Please let me know in the

comments. If you enjoyed this video,

you'll probably enjoy my video right

here on the 10 things that are no longer

worth your money in 2026. It was one of

my favorite videos to make this year, so

make sure to check it out right here.

All right, special announcement today is

that I have a new long-form YouTube show

where I review my viewers' finances. If

you're interested in seeing that show

where I talk to three different people

per episode about their personal

finances and try to fix them, you want

to check that out right here. I

personally think that you would really

just enjoy that format, especially if

you're listening to it in the car or the

gym. I think that's a perfect place for

that long-form show. So, I hope to see

you guys in there or a future video on

the channel. Thank you for being here.

Peace.