A simple example is coffee or a snack. Some people buy coffee or any snack every day, spending between $2 and $4 a day (maybe more). If you do the math, that's over $60 a month, and over $700 a year. All of that for a treat that, if replaced with homemade items, would cost pennies. I'm not saying that indulging is bad; we all do it. But when it becomes routine, it ceases to be a luxury and becomes an infrequent expense that erodes our ability to save.

Another very common example is phones. As soon as a new model comes out, some people go into debt just to have it, even though the old one works perfectly. This is consumer society at its finest, because we've been led to believe that being "up to date" is more important than being financially stable. So, someone changes their phone every year, spending $800, $1,000, or even $1,200, while still saying they can't save. And if we multiply that behavior over several years, that's the difference between having an investment fund or always being broke at the end of the month.

The same thing happens with clothing. In many countries, people buy clothes they wear only once or twice because they're in fashion, and then they're forgotten in the closet. The industry convinces us that we need to constantly change, when in reality what we need is to learn to differentiate between a passing desire and a true need. In the end, what accumulates isn't wealth, but debt.

Globally, this pattern is repeated almost everywhere. Social media has made comparisons constant: if someone travels, someone else wants to travel; if someone buys a car, so does their neighbor. It's a never-ending race that leads nowhere, because there will always be someone with something more expensive, newer, or bigger. And the sad thing is that while we run after that illusion, we neglect the most important thing: building a solid financial future.

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If we changed that mindset and instead of spending so much on immediate consumption items, we allocated even a percentage to savings or investments, the outlook would be different. Imagine if 20% of the money spent on snacks, unnecessary clothing, or trendy gadgets were saved in an investment account. In a few years, that discipline would translate into real wealth, peace of mind, and opportunities that consumption doesn't provide.

I think the culture of consumption is like a mirage. It makes us believe that having more things means having more happiness, but the truth is that what matters isn't what we spend, but what we manage to conserve and multiply. And you, what do you think? Have you identified what you spend more on simply out of habit or social pressure?

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