I read a book called The Richest Man in Babylon and it states “that which we consider to be our necessary expenditures will always rise to meet our income, unless we protest to the contrary”. I’ve tried to remember that lesson my whole life. You must be very intentional about expenditures, scrutinizing each one, and scrutinize it in the context of the lifestyle you wish to maintain, not the one you’re newly capable of sustaining.

Our financial advisor gave us these tips:

• Don’t create excessive overhead for managing money. Ideally, you know your monthly expenses, put all the money to cover them in a bill account. That money doesn’t exist and comes out with automatic payments. What remains is “carefree” money that you should enjoy.
• Work towards a new $0. This is for building a safety buffer. You pretend $250 is $0. When you get to $250 in the bank, you start to watch your finances much closer to figure out how to not spend. Then next month, you make the new $0 as $275. By doing this, you get in a better habit of saving.
• Take company matches on 401K & other benefits if you can use them. This should be more money you pretend doesn’t exist because the long term gains are very good compared to the short term outcomes of more money now.
• Have forcing functions built into your calendar for reviewing finances. Once a week, once a month. You shouldn’t stress about money constantly, but you shouldn’t be unaware either.
• As others have said, there’s a big mental & emotional component to doing this work & having the self discipline needed.
• Always pay off the Credit Card balance. Always.
• …No seriously, do not carry CC debt…

I’ve had life style issues 3 times in my life, which I’m really fortunate for honestly. You only get lifestyle creep from growing means & a failure to adjust your situation. It’s significantly harder for many people in our modern world to do some of these steps because people are already paycheck to paycheck. If you get a raise, it’s a blessing (I’m a UU), but you got to use it for good, whether that’s your security or the security of others.

I think also the need to project a certain image as mentioned in the article is a big issue for people these days.

It’s an easy trap to fall into, so many people on social media, cosplaying being rich, ability to view life styles of people who are actually rich. There is something nice about having people envy the perceived position you’re at in life.

That said, you shouldn’t really care how you’re perceived. Only assholes feel the need to show others how well they are really doing and thats mostly just to make other people around them feel small, so that they get to feel big.

U avoid it by not being a sucker for the rampant consumerism being shoved down your throat. U dont need the new expensive thing just cos its shiny the old one is 99% identical. Dont fall for peer pressure etc.

Living in a smal space also helps with lifestyle creep as you can’t find a space for new things. Also, only replace something if it’s broken or unsafe.

Budget as if you don’t make much money.

Get yourself into a hoarding support group. You don’t have to be a total slob for these to be useful. And by far most hoarders don’t look like the folks showcased on Bravo; reality shows specifically look for worst-cases that will have a psychotic break right on camera. Some of us really wish we’d fold our laundry rather than living out of the basket.

We all have a compulsion to collect stuff, whether Funko-POP bobble-heads, unplayed board games, multitools or in the case of Jay Leno, cars in different states of disrepair (and a lot of garages). It comes with being a mammal, and that is why rental storage is so tempting.

At hoarder support programs you will learn to organize your crap and work on large scale cleaning efforts. And you’ll discover the emotional connections you have with all this…stuff.

And that is when you will develop an appreciation of what you actually need, what really sparks joy and what is a proxy for something else.

Also, if you’re used to being poor, you might be in the habit of keeping stuff that can ve cannibalized for parts, to avoid spending money on new components. If you’re in a municipal area, there might be an organization like a user’s group with a junk library. Give your adapter collection to them.

Once you’ve gone through the agony of paring down you will appreciate the gaps between the possessions like the things themselves. Maybe more so.

And then, even when you can afford that new mini-laptop or a second, better propane grill, you’ll actually ask yourself if you really need it. Maybe you know someone you can give the old one to. But eventually, you’ll appreciate the phone / bike / can opener / wallet you got enough you don’t have to get the new-fangled one.

So instead of having ten mechanical keyboards, you’ll have a good one, a travel one and maybe a spare in case one breaks. Instead of having seven pocket knives, you’ll have one with a solid selection and a separate screwdriver with twenty bits stashed away because none of the drivers on the pocket knives are very good. (Looking at you, Victorinox Cyber.)

It also means, before you buy that keen bauble, you’re going to think about where it goes. (A bauble for me is a this space intentionally left blank indicator, like a coffee table that might otherwise draw bags of stuff from recent shopping.) If you see it going on a busy shelf or in a box, it saves you the trouble of buying it.

You will also be a snob over all your prized objects.

Do you spend money to improve your life, or just to get through the week? Earning more money is hard, but money makes money - the less you spend, the less you’ll need in the future, and the more you’ll have to invest. It’s a snowball. Once you internalise this, tracking your finances, reducing your spending, increasing your wealth, and reducing your workload becomes a fun game.

Once my wife and I realised this is what we wanted to do, it took us 7 years to quit work completely. Frugality is the most important part - not earning, not investing - lifestyle creep is a big part of why.

See:

• your money or your life
• early retirement extreme
• Mr money moustache

Relatively simply, if you don’t want it, then it won’t happen. It’s really not complicated. For example, instead of getting a 5% raise, reduce your hours from 40 -> 38. Instead of spending your excess money, put it into retirement savings. Just don’t use extra money, or don’t get it in the first place.

Of course, before that, to “not want” lifestyle creep you first have to deprogram your brain from thinking it needs new things to be happy. That one might be a little harder.

Avoid it within reason I guess…