This is all just based on my opinion here in the US.
- Buying a new phone every year - I was an early adopter of the smartphone, back when people made fun of them for being big bricks. They've gotten faster and more capable over the years, sure, but it's not worth an upgrade every year, or even every few years.
- Buying a new car - they're smartphones on wheels these days, and manufactures are adding subscriptions to them so that you can "unlock" features like your heated seats.
- Glasses - debatable, although after my eye surgery, it would've been cheaper in the long run to get this years ago as opposed to getting glasses and contacts this whole time.
- Renting a house - I'm not a fan of landlords, and as a kid, I had to move around a lot whenever one of them decided to sell the house on short notice. In my experience, many of them have been cheapskates who skip legal checks to save a few bucks, although I'm still sour all these years later after one of them cost me my health because they didn't check the house for mould as they should've.
- Renting land for a trailer - I have no personal experience with this one, although I've read that some companies have been buying up trailer parks in bulk and raising the rent on the existing renters exorbitantly.
- The wrong used cars - not all used cars, just ones with costly issues. Most people don't know how to check for these issues, and buy a used car that'll cost thousands to fix.
- Wild-caught pets - it's not a money trap if there's one you really want to help, but some people buy wild caught reptiles for their "collections" only to find out they have parasites or other issues that require a vet to treat. Not just any vet though, but an exotic vet who may be hundreds of miles away.
- Buying IM tools without knowing what you're doing first - some people get excited, invest hundreds into various tools (sometimes even on a subscription basis), and... don't do anything with them because they're not even sure what to use them on.
- Health insurance - US health insurance can be summarised as a "you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't" situation. Just another subscription service that's even more useless than the others when you have an actual medical issue that needs to be taken care of. They give you the run around on everything in order to avoid doing the exact thing you're paying them to do.
Reading this, I realised I don't like subscriptions.