Most of us try to achieve financial freedom by playing offense. More hours. More hustle. More stress.

But if our financial life has a leak, it doesn’t matter how much water we pour in. We still end up feeling broke. That’s why so many of us never get ahead.

We don’t lose the game because we don’t make enough… we lose because we let the “big three” eat everything.

Jason Fieber is the one who hammered this home for me in his Early Retirement Blueprint. He calls them the “big three” because they’re the heavyweights — the categories that quietly decide whether we build wealth or stay normal forever. And “normal” has a price. A big one.

The Big Three: Housing, Transportation, Food

The truth is, most of us are spending recklessly — we’ve just been trained to think it’s normal.

HGTV turns “want” into “need.” A perfectly good bathroom becomes a “project.” A perfectly fine kitchen or living room becomes “unlivable” until it looks like a Hallmark set. Then comes the car upgrade to keep up with the Joneses. Then the furniture. Then the vacations. Then the monthly payments.

And food? Don’t even get me started. We blow money eating out without thinking. We won’t think twice about dropping $100 on a meal… and then we do it again a few days later. It becomes routine.

I’m guilty of this stuff too. It’s hard to de-normalize it when it’s become a habit, or what I call a “default.”

But when I think back to being a kid, my parents took my brother and I out maybe once a month to Pizza Hut… and a few times a summer to McDonald’s (after winning a soccer game or jumping off the dock at the lake). Today, eating out happens multiple times a week — and we act like that’s just “life.”

It’s reckless, unnecessary spending that sets us back years… sometimes decades… and we don’t even realize it until it’s too late. And then we wonder why we don’t have any extra money to invest.

So let’s break down the three bills that matter most:

1) Housing (The Lifestyle Mortgage)
Housing is usually our biggest expense — which means it’s our biggest lever.

But most of us treat housing like a trophy. We buy square footage we don’t use and then we lock ourselves into a decade (or three) of payments.

Here’s where it gets interesting: a lot of us assume buying is automatically “building wealth,” and renting is “throwing money away.” That sounds smart until we actually look at what homeowners pay every month. That’s because even if we own a home outright, we’re still paying for it. We’re just paying in a different way.

Renting isn’t “throwing money away” (if it buys us the gap).

When we rent, our monthly cost is usually simple and predictable:

  • Rent
  • Utilities (maybe)
  • Renter’s insurance (cheap)

When we own, the “payment” is often just the beginning. Depending on our situation, we’re dealing with:

  • Mortgage interest (if we financed)
  • Opportunity cost (if we didn’t) — because tying up $250,000 in a home means that money isn’t invested in dividend growth stocks producing income
  • Property taxes (talk about throwing money away…)
  • Homeowner’s insurance
  • HOA fees (if it’s a condo)
  • Maintenance and repairs (if it’s a house — and it’s never “if,” it’s “when”)

Here’s the easiest way to see it:

And that flexibility point matters more than most of us realize.

A one-year lease keeps us mobile. If we lose a job, or a better opportunity pops up, we can move fast.

That’s exactly what Jason did when he moved from Detroit to Florida (and ultimately Thailand)— he didn’t “optimize” his life by locking himself into the biggest apartment he could afford. He optimized his life by staying flexible and building the gap.

The goal isn’t to “win” the homeownership debate. The goal is to buy our time back.

Sometimes owning makes sense. But if owning is crushing our savings rate, it’s not wealth-building. It’s wealth delaying.

2) Transportation (The Silent Wealth Tax)
Car payments are a socially acceptable wealth leak. Not just the payment — insurance, gas, repairs, registration… it all stacks up.

Most of us don’t realize we’re not buying a car — we’re buying a monthly obligation. A recurring bill that kills the gap that could’ve gone into investments.

And the trap is psychological: the dealership sells us on the monthly payment, not the total cost. “Only $499 a month” sounds manageable… until we realize we just volunteered for a multi-year subscription to being less free.

A few high-impact moves that actually move the needle:

  • Drive the paid-off car longer (boring, but effective)
  • Buy used, not new (let someone else eat the depreciation)
  • Lower our insurance (higher deductibles, shop rates annually)
  • Reduce trips (combine errands, fewer miles, fewer repairs)
  • If we can: go one-car household, or use public transit / bike for some commutes

We don’t have to swear off cars forever. But we do have to stop pretending a $500–$1,000/month transportation habit is small. It’s not.

3) Food (Convenience Disguised As “Normal”)
Food is the sneakiest because it feels harmless.

A coffee here. Lunch out there. Delivery because we’re busy. Sushi night to catch up with friends. It all adds up.

And a lot of us don’t realize we’re not spending on food… We’re spending on convenience as a lifestyle. I’m not saying we have to eat like monks. I’m saying we’ve got to stop letting food become a daily financial leak.

This is the simplest food system I’ve seen work for almost anyone:

  • Pick 3–5 cheap “default meals” we can repeat
  • Keep a stocked “baseline” grocery list (so we’re not forced into takeout)
  • Cook 3-4 times per week, eat leftovers the other days
  • Make eating out an event — not a reflex

Because once we stop bleeding money through “random food spending,” our budget suddenly starts behaving. And the best part? This one reinforces itself. The more we save, the more we want to save. And the easier it gets to invest consistently.

Now here’s the part most of us need to see in black and white:

That table is the whole story.

This is what the “gap” looks like in real life — the same gap we explained in Part 1 here:
The Real Reason You Can’t Retire Yet (It’s Not Your Income).

Most of us fight for a raise when we could create a raise with decisions. Cutting the big three doesn’t just save money, it creates investable capital — the raw material of wealth.

The Takeaway

If we’re serious about financial freedom, we’ve got to stop obsessing over small stuff and attack the big three: housing, transportation and food.

Those three bills decide whether we’ll ever build a real investing engine. Because financial freedom isn’t built by tracking every latte — it’s built by creating a gap so large that investing becomes inevitable.

Good investing!
Greg Patrick

P.S. If you want the full, step-by-step blueprint for turning that gap into growing dividend income, grab Jason Fieber’s Early Retirement Blueprint.

Source: Dividends & Income