If Raises Means Spending More, You’ll Ultimately Have Less
I have recently been lucky enough to accept a new position that will reflect a significant increase to my yearly salary. Knowing the current job climate I am extraordinarily grateful for the new opportunity and I think it is with an organization that I will be with for some time. Having said that, I have noticed in my congratulations from my friends and family that nearly everyone sees the raise as an opportunity to buy more and “move up.” Universally, we received questions like, when will you buy a larger home? Or what type of new car are you looking at? Don’t get me wrong, I would love the two above luxuries, but that is all they are, luxuries, not needs. I really believe windfalls and sudden flows of new cash streams should be treated as a chance to get ahead, whether that means in savings, paying down debt, or investing. If receiving raises to you means buying more, you will never get a raise.
Immediately after accepting the position, our car was due for the standard tune-up, requiring new drive belts, fluids, etc. Always doing this type of work myself, I was told it will be nice being able to afford to take it in to get worked on. Always really being able to afford to have somebody do the work, I was reminded that wasn’t the point. I chose to again save money and take the opportunity to learn more about the mechanics of our vehicle. The result is the same amount of money extra per month as the raise reflects. Choosing to have somebody do the work I would have likely paid more or close to what my raise would have been anyways, essentially erasing the extra income and erasing any hopes of getting ahead for the month. I can see this type of spending attitude becoming addicting and spreading into other types of our spending habits and likely putting us into a situation where another raise would not only be nice, but a necessity.
The point is not to fix your own vehicle, but to sustain your current lifestyle, even when your income balloons. Of course there will always be a time when you outgrow your home or need a new vehicle, but more money does not justify fast forwarding these luxuries. What do I intend to do with the money? Pay even more down on our student loans each month, which will result in thousands of interest money paid. Increase the amount going towards an emergency fund. Increase our retirement contributions. Lastly, we will leave a little extra each month going towards whatever we want, which will provide what we hope to be a financial breather to our weekend wallet—realizing that more money is not an excuse to eat out every night, but an opportunity to order dessert or a steak, which are small expenses that can fulfill the need to consume on a larger scale.
Again, if receiving raises to you means buying more, you will never get a raise. $
Related articles you might be interested in:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader or email.
Great Read! Very true and agree with you 100% I always used to say , if I could only make 50k / year I would be set for life! but now working and making that it’s funny how your lifestyle catches up to your wallet so it’s very easy to fall under that.