He could wallpaper his (tiny) appartment with 100 dollar bills but still not have a penny to his name.
That's because he wallpapered all his money to his apartment walls instead of putting them in a bank account.
For money, your GM can also just give you a bonus on resources rolls until he decides the cash is gone. It doesn't NEED to be an Aspect, although it certainly can work that way as well.
For items, well, I gotta agree with the other posters here. You maybe can "preview" them that scene or even that session, but if you want always-on access to them, you pay the refresh. That's for refresh-costing Items, though. Items with a capital I.
When it comes to equipment, I generally am pretty forgiving. My group picked up a dagger that can hurt ghosts, some tricked-out M4s and some SWAT-issue MP5s, body armor, etc. As far as I'm concerned, they have those things. Nothing there is anything I would charge refresh for, not even the ghost knife. Although since they haven't spent any points, they know I can take it away if I feel like it. In fact, there's been a funny side-story about the group's assault rifles all being held by the one player who never makes it to gaming. Whenever anyone else can't make it, our in-game explanation is that they've gone to track down Jimmy Pale Wolf and get those guns back before he trades them for sexual favors or Alf pogs or something.