186: What Do Rich People Buy LAST?
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What is the main premise of the episode and who are the hosts?
Welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast, a top 10 business podcast on Spotify brought to you by public.com. By the end of today's episode, you'll understand the four things broke people do first. And rich people do last. My name's Austin Hanquitz. I'm joined by my co-host Robert Croak. Robert is a seasoned entrepreneur with lifetime revenues of over three hundred million. And I'm a multimillionaire in my early thirties with a background in finance and economics. As the show name might suggest, every episode we talk about rich habits as they relate to business, finance, and mindset. So Robert, what are we talking about in today's episode?
In today's episode, we're flipping the script on how most people think about wealth. Everyone assumes rich people just buy more, bigger houses, nicer cars, more stuff, but that's backwards. The real pattern, if you actually study how wealthy people spend, is about sequence, not quantity. Broke people try to buy status first, hoping that the wealth catches up later, and rich people buy status last after the Wealth is already there, funded by money they don't need for anything else. So today we're walking through four categories where this shows up most clearly. And in every single one, we're gonna show you what broke spending looks like first and what rich spending looks like instead.
This is gonna be fun episode, Robert. So quite literally, we're gonna go through four different categories and say this is what broke people tend to do. This is what rich people do. And these four categories are sort of the things that rich people buy last, right? So Robert, kick us off with category number one.
Yes, let's start with what everyone sees first because it's the one you drive around in every day, your primary car. And here's what broke spending on a car looks like. You finance or lease something well above what your income comfortably supports because the car is doing a job that has nothing to do with getting you from point A to point B. It's signaling that you've made it even if you haven't. The average monthly payment on a new car. Right now, as we film this in 2026, is $770 and it's an all-time high. And total auto loan debt in this country just surpassed $1.7 trillion more than student loan debt nationwide. That's not a small number. That's tens of millions of people carrying a car payment around that's eating away at their ability to save or invest.
In Austin, Then another part of this problem that really shocked me when we were doing the research and preparing for this episode is that 25% of new car buyers right now are using 84-month loans. That's seven years, which we believe is financial suicide, given the interest rates and expected depreciation on those new cars. And as a reminder, the average new car in America depreciates.
That is bonkers. And yeah, I mean, we we did some research here. So here's some numbers for you. A new car loses around twenty percent of its value in just one year. That first year, you drive it off the lot, twenty percent is gone. And by that year five that you're alluding to, Robert, around half. It's worth only half of what you originally paid for it. So broke spending on a car isn't just spending money you don't have, it's quite literally spending money you You don't have on an asset that's actively going down in value by every single moment and mile you put on it. You're financing a depreciating asset with debt, which is the worst combination in personal finance. So let's not think about what rich people do, right?
Rich people buy nice fancy cars last. They look pretty boring as a strategy in comparison. You drive something reliable, you drive something that's paid off, often well past the point where you could easily afford something nicer because the car itself isn't doing any signaling anymore. When a wealthy person does eventually buy a nicer car, it's usually with cash. And it happens years after the net worth grows to such a large amount of money that it can absolutely support having something that's going to.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main premise of the episode and who are the hosts?
0:00β5:30
2
Why do wealthy people buy cars last and how does that differ from broke spending?
5:30β11:41
3
How should you approach buying a home as a wealthy person versus a broke person?
11:41β17:47
4
Why are luxury goods (designer items, watches, jewelry) bought last by the rich?
17:47β23:00
5
How should wealthy individuals handle vacations and experiences compared to broke spending?
23:00β29:07
6
What are the listenersβ top financial questions about Roth vs. Traditional contributions?
29:07β35:10
7
How should a young professional invest an inheritance and manage student loans?
35:10β40:01
8
What final takeaways do the hosts give about buying last and building wealth?
40:01β45:19
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Rich Habits Podcast
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Southwest's New Airport Lounge, Kalshi Bans Congressman, & Ford's $30K Truck
Q&A: $10M Inheritance, Living In A Trailer, & 403(b) vs 457(b)
185: Is Your Financial Life Too Complicated?
Nvidia's $675B Guidance, Oura Ring IPO & Meta's Lawsuit