/biz/ - Business & Finance

First two things that come to mind:
>Gambling
>Buying the latest iPhone

But I want to get a little deeper. I think the biggest cause of people wasting money is when they try to fulfill basic needs, but are misguided in how they try to fulfill them, usually because really good marketers have hijacked the reward process that comes with the need. I'll go through the Maslow pyramid, bottom to top, for some examples:

>We all need to eat, but people who eat a lot of processed food start to associate the craving for fat and sugar with their hunger, so whenever they get hungry, instead of just needing satiation, they think they specifically need to be stuffed with burgers.
>We usually have our need for safety fulfilled in the first world, but marketers can just scare you and then offer you a product that protects you from their artificial threat.
>People who think that buying a specific brand of products means joining a "club". What they really want is a sense of belonging in a group, but they've been convinced that how they spend their money defines their group, and how much they defines how much they belong.
>Buy a really expensive car, feel like the king of the world. But whoops, your neighbor bought an even more expensive car, now you're just a pleb. Better save up for your next car. It's so fucking transparent and people still fall for it.
>You wanna achieve greatness? You're gonna need a prestigious college degree. I mean, no one who's serious about their goals expects to get there for free, right?

tl;dr:
>buying shit you don't need