Expenses rise to meet income. This is the gist of Parkinson’s law. This is the reason that a couple months after most people get a raise, it feels just as tight financially as it did before the raise.
We create the additional expenses when the funds are available. Not on purpose, of course, but on accident. As long as the money is in our pocket we can usually find somewhere to spend it.
We teach our kids to put the money in the bank, because we know that if they can’t get to it they will save it. This is the trick to saving money and believe it or not, it works for adults too.
Without an intentional effort, houses, desks, kitchen sinks naturally get messy and cluttered. We have to take action ON PURPOSE to keep things clean and organized. The same ON PURPOSE effort needs to be made to keep our expenses BELOW our income.
It is a profoundly simple concept, but ironically some of the simplest things in life are the most difficult.
I might also add:
” A luxury, once enjoyed, becomes necessity.”
It’s not necessary to aspire to asceticism, but be VERY careful about certain ‘luxuries.’
If you know yourself enough to realize your ‘triggers’, and know that you may utter the phrase ‘can’t believe I lived without it’:
Learn to walk away from an initial enticement if you KNOW that you can’t afford the consequences (future investments of money, time, distraction, focus, etc.) of indulging on a regular basis.
This does NOT mean walking away from ALL (some things ARE worth it!), but MOST are not necessary.