Lifestyle creep
Also called: lifestyle inflation
Spending expanding to absorb a rising income, usually through commitments rather than treats.
The reason people earn considerably more than they used to and have no more room.
It happens through commitments, not indulgences: a larger place, a car payment, a better contract, a wider insurance policy. Each was decided once, when it was clearly affordable. Each then recurs silently, forever.
That is why cutting discretionary spending feels futile at higher incomes — the discretionary part is often the smaller half of the problem, and it is the half that fights back daily.
The prevention is timing rather than discipline: decide where a raise goes before it arrives, and let the increase land in savings by default. You do not miss money you never experienced as available.
Related terms
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