The manifestation mantra “every dollar I spend comes back to me tenfold” has contributed directly to some massive financial devastation in my life and the lives of others.

Here’s the thing: if that were actually true, inflation would be astronomical since everyone would be billionaires and trillionaires. And even in a metaphorical sense, it’s very rare to get that kind of ROI on… anything. It doesn’t happen very often in investing, and people who invest are people who have money to spare when they start, because it’s not common to even get what you invested back twofold. So why is this such a commonly used phrase in manifestation?

If we are to look at this more metaphorically, it can be true that money you spend is returned to you and then some, when it’s being spent on things that promote your financial well-being. Spending money on, say, your business, or on a coach who is the right fit for you, is something that can, in the long-term, produce a fiscal return on the investment you made. Things like spending money on a more reliable vehicle when you make money with your car, so you’re not paying for repairs as often and can allocate energy to making money, is another example of how the dollars you spend can come back to you tenfold. 

But it is not possible for EVERY dollar you spend to come back multiplied. Your rent doesn’t come back tenfold (wouldn’t it be amazing if it did, though?). Your Starbucks purchases don’t come back tenfold. Your car insurance payment doesn’t come back tenfold. The things we have to buy in order to run our lives, mundane things like dish soap and health insurance and groceries, are not purchases where your money is coming back to you tenfold. It is physically impossible for that much money to even exist.

I know for me, this type of thinking, when I was deeply entrenched in the manifestation industrial complex, led to me actually making more impulsive purchases and poorer financial decisions than I had been making prior to entering these programs, because I was supposed to “trust that the universe has my back” and believe that “every dollar I spend comes back to me tenfold.” And where did that get me? At one point, I almost returned to homelessness as a result of those poor financial choices, something I told myself I would never do again.

And I’m not the only person with a story like this. Sure, I take responsibility for my own actions. None of my coaches made me spend all of my money on bullshit. I did that on my own. But my reasoning was clouded by these mantras that are taught by hundreds of manifestation and money coaches every day. Coupled with undiagnosed ADHD, it was a disaster for my finances when I was told that spending money based on emotions was okay because I was always going to have my ass covered by the universe, in some magical way, as long as I didn’t worry about the “how” of it (AKA, spend all my money and make no plans to generate more).

Some would say I just did manifestation “wrong”. And maybe I did, or maybe manifestation failed me. There was never any discussions of trauma-informed money management or encouragement to seek therapy for my impulse control problems, which in retrospect is what I actually needed from a mentor.