Some purchases are investments; others are rent paid to insecurity.

Some spending buys something real, and some quietly pays for reassurance about how you are seen or how you feel about yourself. The second kind never quite resolves, which is why it repeats, and each purchase feels justified individually while the pattern never ends.

Look for the category where you keep buying and never feel finished. Clothes, gear, upgrades, whatever it is. The repetition is the signal, and what it points to is usually not purchasable.