I don’t know what they would wish for but what they ought to wish for is home ownership. (Or a stable partner, the two usually go together)

The greatest single thing anyone could wish for is owning a home. Our system is rigged. Rent usually == mortgage + taxes + insurance

So the renter is paying off the landlords mortgage. At the end of 30 years cash flow neutral (or slightly positive) the landlord has an asset that exceeds most people’s net worth. If the renter could have bought instead they’d be miles ahead. The only reason they don’t is that coming up with 20% down is outside most people’s reach unless they’re thoughtful, clever, or lucky.

Most people are teetering one paycheck to another. How are they going to save a hundred or two hundred thousand? But boy if they can, life gets different.

most would get expended on youthful impulses, few would be maturely ‘spent’ as a closing action to extended investigations & deliberations

whether that would be a ‘waste’ is a harder question to answer