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How To Avoid Lifestyle Creep
Core Habits
Core Habits
- Hide Your Raise / Don't Broadcast: Put extra money away instead of telling people about it. "Don’t tell anyone. You won’t come across as cheap if they don’t know you have extra. Put the extra away into a good investment vehicle."
- Automate Savings From Raises: Route raises directly to savings/investments so you never see the spendable increase. "Whenever I got a raise, I'd put 50% of the raise into retirement/savings accounts."
- Direct-Deposit Out Of Sight: Move surplus into accounts before it reaches your spending account. "Direct deposit the extra money away before it even comes to your hand"
- Conscious / Reverse Budgeting: Hit fixed goals first, then spend the remainder guilt-free or use reverse budgeting to spend what’s left after contributions. "Know your fixed costs... Hit your savings rates... Spend the rest guilt free and enjoy life."
- Controlled Increases Only: Treat lifestyle upgrades as planned, intentional choices that fit long-term goals rather than spontaneous levelling-up. "Lifestyle creep is unintentional uncontrolled unplanned increases in expenses. It's perfectly fine to increase lifestyle expenses in a controlled and planned way that fits with your long term financial goals."
- Ask What Brings Value: Decide by what actually improves your life, not by status or impulse. "figure out what spending actually makes you happy and adds value to your life."
- Automate Contributions to Retirement/Investing: Increase contributions immediately when income rises. "I up my retirement contributions every time I get a raise."
- Sinking Funds & Walls: Create sinking funds or 'walls' for future purchases so extras don't become impulse buys. "I set up sinking funds for large purchases and allocating a certain amount every month... It really think through if you actually want the thing."
- Trim Subscriptions & Review Outgoings Regularly: Audit recurring charges and services; small monthly fees add up. "Memberships and subscriptions can add up quickly." / "Review your outgoings (subscriptions, pub, car repayments) and ask yourself if you really need them."
- Avoid Fixed Expense Upgrades: Don't buy things that permanently raise recurring costs (insurance, maintenance, taxes). "That’s... the only caveat I would add is that when I spend guilt free it cannot be on items that increased fixed expenses... Or things that require ongoing expenses like taxes, maintenance and insurance."
- Protect Against 'One-Time' High-Maintenance Choices: Recognize purchases that carry long-term costs (big house, truck). "Purchases that are thought of as a one time cost, but require high maintenance costs... this is like selling your corolla and buying a truck."
- Delete Social Triggers: Reduce exposure to social media and ads that fuel comparison and impulse upgrades. "For me - deleting social media. I didn't see how stylish everyone was... It made it A LOT easier to not spend on **** I didn't need..."
- Pause Impulse Buys: Let purchases sit before you click buy to avoid regret. "Don't make impulsive purchases, - let it sit in the cart overnight before you click buy."
- Give Yourself Permission With a Fun Line Item: Budget a guilt-free "fun" allocation so you can spend without undermining goals. "You need a line item in your budget for fun." / "I started putting aside some splurge money to spend every month... Started to unwire myself slowly."
- Housing & Cars Lock-In: Major purchases are the largest long-term drivers of lifestyle creep. "The biggest expenses: home, cars. They’re single decisions and once you’re locked in, you’re locked."
- Upgrading Everything: Avoid levelling up every category just because you can — you can't afford "nice everythings." "Lifestyle creep is when you mindlessly level up every category of spending... People get in trouble because they can afford nicer things, but they cannot afford nice everythings."
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