A single word for someone who spends their wealth very foolishly
What is a single word for someone who spends their wealth very foolishly?
For example: A person is obligated to take care of their children but instead spends their money on unnecessary things leaving no money to provide the necessary things for their children like food and clothes.
Solution 1:
- profligate
- wastrel
- squanderer
- spendthrift
Solution 2:
prodigal noun
A person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way.
From Twelve Emperors by Suetonius, the following description is of Caligula
‘In reckless extravagance he outdid the prodigals of all times in ingenuity… and set before his guests loaves and meats of gold, declaring that a man ought either to be frugal or be Caesar. [...] To make a long story short, vast sums of money, including the 2,700,000,000 sesterces which Tiberius Caesar had amassed, were squandered by him in less than the revolution of a year.’
Solution 3:
One word? How about if I force in a hyphen to connect a word more closely to 'wealth'?
Financially-frivolous or maybe frivolent-spender (frivolent isn't a standard spelling)
From Dictionary.com
frivolous [friv-uh-luh s]
adjective
characterized by lack of seriousness or sense: frivolous conduct.
self-indulgently carefree; unconcerned about or lacking any serious purpose.
(of a person) given to trifling or undue levity: a frivolous, empty-headed person.
of little or no weight, worth, or importance; not worthy of serious notice: a frivolous suggestion.
I think frivolous still might be a bit dated and formal for you goals though(even if it is closer to your average joe's spoken language than some of the more precise suggestions here).
Would something made-up like money-flake be more the feeling you're after?