Ladies and gentlemen, you know money is kind of like the old lady in the neighborhood who lives in an abandoned house with all the trees growing over it. And of course you know what I’m talking about – it’s the house in the neighborhood where the lady never leaves, where the lady is always looking out her attic window, and all the kids in the neighborhood swear she’s a witch.
Is she a witch, ladies and gentlemen? Maybe she’s just misunderstood. Maybe she’s actually pretty cool, but everyone is just too scared to get to know her. This is who money is – the misunderstood lady next door.
There are things that we tell each other that hold no value, and just like the old lady next door who everyone thinks is a witch, if we just took some time to knock on the door and figure out who money is, we would realize that none of these myths are true. In this article, I want to debunk some of these myths because if you end up believing these myths, they’ll end up keeping you poor and making you think that money is bad. But money ain’t that bad. So here are seven money myths that keep you poor.
1: Rich People Wear Prada and Drive Sports Cars
When I was a young naive little boy, I used to think that rich people were people who were very materialistic, who wore designer clothes, who lived in mansions, and drove sports cars. I just perceived rich people as the people on MTV Cribs. But now as a five foot five fully grown adult, I now know that these are not rich people, but people who are drowning in debt.
Social media portrays rich people as people who live very materialistic lives and spend their money without any cares, but this is a false portrayal of who rich people are. The reality is the average rich person did not get rich by spending their money, but by not spending their money.
I mean, the average millionaire got that way by living below their means, not seeking material status symbols, and being frugal. It’s an absurd myth to think that the rich spend all their money because spending money is what makes someone poor. When you see these people who live in giant mansions and have four-car garages, they’re most likely just drowning in debt.
Rich people become rich – the average wealthy person gets their wealth not from a high salary or all these status symbols, but by living below their means, not seeking material status symbols, and being patient.
2: Money is Evil
Ladies and gentlemen, many people think that money is evil, but this is just a myth. You know, we spend our entire lives trying to make money, but many people don’t spend a second trying to understand money. That’s why people think money is evil. But money is really just what you make of it, and you can either be friends with it or enemies with it.
I’ve said this before, but I believe that money has two personalities. The first personality is the kind personality – the personality that has your back, and this is in the form of savings and investments. The second personality of money is the evil personality – the personality that walks all over you, and this is debt and loans.
Because most people never take the time to understand money, they only get to know the evil side of money. But it’s a myth to think that money is evil because money isn’t evil – it’s the lack of money that is evil. When you have no money and you have a bunch of debt, then money walks all over you. But if you take control of your personal finance, then money is your best friend.
Money allows you to do so many things. Money allows you to quit your job and spread the good word. There’s two personalities of money, and you can either be friends with it or you can be enemies with it.
3: Someone Else Can Solve Your Money Problems
You know, we put a little too much faith in people that we have never met before, thinking that some stranger is going to solve all of our money problems. As nice as that sounds, that is literally impossible. It’s impossible because money isn’t the problem, lack of financial education is the problem.
I could literally wave a magic wand right now and say we’re starting over, no one has any debt anymore. A month later, people would get back into debt. People get car payments they can’t afford, people would get big houses. No one can solve a problem that is so personal, and if you don’t educate yourself on budgeting, frugality, and money management, that’s impossible to have a healthy relationship with money. Money is about self-control.
Getting someone else to solve your money problems is a short-term solution to a long-term problem. If someone solved all your money problems, what’s stopping you from getting back in that situation? It’s nice to think that someone else could solve our problems, but it’s a myth because money is about personal responsibility. It’s about educating yourself on frugality, money management, and budgeting, and that’s something that only you can do – not me, not anyone else, but you.
It’s not the answer that people want to hear, but it’s the truth.
4: Life is Expensive
One of my goals is to show people that you don’t need as much money to survive as you think you do. I mean, life is much more expensive now than it was a hundred years ago, and the reason for that is partly because things cost more, but the main reason is because we have so many temptations put in front of us.
A hundred years ago, there wasn’t Nike or Amazon or a million different streaming services. People didn’t spend that much money because there wasn’t anything to buy, and life didn’t have as many temptations.
Now that we have all this stuff to spend our money on, all these temptations, our primitive brains can’t handle it. I’m reading this book right now called “Dopamine Nation,” and it’s talking about how in our society we’re faced with so many temptations and so many pleasures that our primitive brains can’t handle it, and our dopamine pain balance gets off.
We always – we want nice things, a shiny car, a new phone, a big house, and we’re always seeking pleasure after pleasure after pleasure. We’ve truly forgotten the difference between a need and a want. So I’m going to explain that right now.
A need is something you can’t live without, like food, water, and shelter. A want is everything else.
It’s a myth to think that life is very expensive because life is a lot less expensive when you have fewer wants. Once you know it’s still going to cost things and it’s not going to be extremely affordable, but life is more expensive the more you want. But if you have few wants and you live in a small place, you cook your own meals, and you find enjoyment from simple things, then life is much more affordable.
5: More Money is the Only Answer to Your Problems
One of the big problems that we have with personal finance is thinking that the only way to solve money problems is to make more money. The only way to have a healthy relationship with money is to get a raise or to get a bonus. For some people that is true – for some people, no matter how frugal they are, it’s still impossible to make ends meet. But the reality is there are two ways to solve money problems: you can make more or spend less.
I think that one of the big problems that we have with money nowadays is that we just have too many wants. We want to eat out every single day, we want the big house, we want the nice car, and then we say “I need to be making more money.” But the reality is there are two ways to solve money problems: you can make more or you can spend less.
Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen – it’s a lot easier to spend less. When you spend less money, you don’t need to make as much money. It’s much easier to make ends meet because your living expenses are so low.
It’s a myth to think that there’s only one solution to money problems because the reality is that there are two solutions to money problems: you can either make more or you can spend less. And let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a whole lot easier to spend less than make more.
6: The More Expensive Something Is, the Better It Is
Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of times when something is more expensive, we assume that it is better, but this is not always true. Sometimes it just means you’re getting ripped off.
For example, there is a clothing brand called Supreme where you can get a black t-shirt for one hundred and forty dollars, or two pairs of underwear for one hundred and twenty dollars, or some chapstick with the logo on it for sixty dollars. Hats off to that company for pulling that off, but shame on anybody who supports them.
We assume that just because something is more expensive that it is better, but this is just a myth because a lot of times what determines the price is the logo and the packaging. We need to think more critically when we spend our money because most of the time when we spend and we overpay, we’re simply just getting ripped off.
7: The Past Was Better Than the Present
One of the things that I’ve been really thinking about lately is how crazy the world is, but how crazy the world has always been. I remember asking my grandpa once what the scariest time in his life was, and he said the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
When it comes to money and personal finance, we look at the present and just panic about all the crazy stuff that is going on, then look at the past as if it was a better time. But I think that the only reason we look so fondly on the past is because we know what happened. We know the answers and we know that we made it out okay.
In the present, we don’t know that. We don’t know what’s going to happen with inflation or the market. But ladies and gentlemen, I think that if you just take personal responsibility over your finances and do your best, that’s all you can do.
Understanding Money’s True Nature
Ladies and gentlemen, money is just a misunderstood old lady next door, and all we need to do is just knock on the door, have a conversation with money, and realize that none of these myths are true.
These seven myths – that rich people are materialistic spenders, that money is inherently evil, that someone else can fix your financial problems, that life is inevitably expensive, that making more money is the only solution, that higher prices always mean better quality, and that the financial past was somehow better – these beliefs keep people trapped in cycles of poor financial decision-making.
The truth is that money is a tool, nothing more and nothing less. Like any tool, it can be used constructively or destructively. The wealthy understand this and treat money with respect, using it to build wealth rather than to display status. They understand that financial success comes from discipline, education, and making smart choices consistently over time.
Most importantly, they understand that personal responsibility is the foundation of financial success. No one else can manage your money for you, just as no one else can exercise for you or learn for you. These are personal responsibilities that require your direct involvement and commitment.
When you strip away these myths and see money for what it really is – a neutral tool that amplifies your financial habits and decisions – you can begin to build a healthier relationship with it. You can start making decisions based on reality rather than misconceptions, and that’s when real financial progress becomes possible.