Sorry to hear that. Might take a while to beat it into his brain that he is wasting money.
Maybe a good approach would be "If you were to do this now, you will have far more money in the future to make your stupid decisions (not phrased that way, you know what I mean)".
I am "doing well" but part of the why is growing up with little. People I know that grew up with "everything" are barely getting by and half of them are underwater. Knowing what waits you at the bottom is a strong motivator to not end up there, at least it is for many people.
For ref, I drive a 20 year old car even though I could go buy something "fancy and fun" tomorrow in cash if I wanted to. But that is through very hard work and through living below your means. Sure, It would be fun/nice to have the new shiny thing but I don't need it and I do not give one fuck about what others around me think about what I drive. It works for me and does everything I need it to. I bought it in cash and have no loans.
I did the same with my last car that I ended up selling because it was a bitch to maintenance (Not buying a VW ever again). I bought it in cash after saving for ~8 years working shit jobs and random crap to pay for it. In the end, it was not worth having no matter how nice and fun it was to drive.
Not everyone thinks about that when they are younger and some do as they get older but not all. Some of them still care about "status" or "looking cool". It is all so fucking pointless. Point your kid at the picture "The pale blue dot" and ask him if he thinks his car matters after seeing that.
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