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Money 101 · Episode 13I Calculated My Biggest Money Mistake. It Cost €100k.
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Money 101 · Episode 15My Neighbours Earn More Than Me. I Have More Than Them.
Money 101 · Episode 19
At forty, I did the math. Twenty years inside the financial system. Big 4 consulting. A good salary every month for over a decade. And I was 20% of the way to where I needed to be. That number stopped me cold. A good salary does not build wealth. A good salary spent differently does.
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Not financial advice. For educational purposes only. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research and consult a qualified advisor before making any investment decisions.
Look... at forty I sat down and did the maths. Twenty years inside the financial system. Director level at Big 4 consulting firms. A good salary arriving every month for over a decade. And I was 20% of the way to where I needed to be to be financially free. That number stopped me cold.
A good salary does not build wealth. A good salary spent differently does. The question is not what you earn. It is what your money is doing while you sleep.
"Twenty years of a good salary. Twenty percent of the way there. The maths was uncomfortable. But it was also clarifying."
Look... lifestyle creep is the gradual increase in spending that occurs as income rises. It is not reckless. It does not feel excessive in the moment. Each individual upgrade feels earned and proportionate. A better apartment when the lease comes up. A newer car when the old one needs replacing. Better restaurants because you can now afford them. More frequent travel because you have worked hard enough to justify it.
The insidious part is that none of these decisions feel like lifestyle creep while they are happening. They feel like the natural progression of a successful career. But the cumulative effect is that every salary increase gets absorbed into a higher cost of living, leaving the gap between income and investment roughly constant regardless of how much income rises.
Look... the arrival fallacy is the belief that reaching a specific goal — a salary level, a title, a milestone — will produce lasting satisfaction. It drives a pattern that goes like this: reach a goal, feel satisfied briefly, reset to baseline, set a new goal, repeat. In a career context it means that each promotion produces a temporary sense of arrival, followed by a new sense of what is needed to feel fully arrived.
In financial terms it translates to spending patterns that always feel appropriate for your level. People earning €50,000 per year spend like people who earn €50,000. People earning €150,000 spend like people who earn €150,000. The lifestyle adjusts to the income rather than the investment rate staying constant as income grows.
Look... this is the part nobody talks about. A salary from a large employer feels like a permanent feature of life. It has been there every month for years. The direct debit goes out, the salary comes in, and the system feels stable and reliable. But a consulting career, a corporate role, a senior position — none of these are as permanent as they feel in the moment. Restructurings happen. Industries change. The income that feels guaranteed today is a function of circumstances that can change.
Building wealth independently of the salary means that if the salary changes, the financial position does not collapse with it. That is financial resilience. And at forty, seeing that the resilience was not there despite the income was the wake-up call that changed everything.
What is lifestyle creep?
Lifestyle creep is the tendency to increase spending as income increases, such that the gap between income and savings remains roughly constant regardless of income growth. Each individual spending increase feels earned and proportionate, but the cumulative effect prevents wealth accumulation despite rising income.
What is the arrival fallacy?
The arrival fallacy is the belief that reaching a specific milestone — a salary, a promotion, a net worth target — will produce lasting happiness or satisfaction. Research shows that the satisfaction is typically short-lived, after which the baseline resets and a new milestone becomes the next target. In financial terms it drives ongoing spending increases that match each new income level.
Why do high earners often have low savings?
Because income and wealth are not the same thing. High earners in demanding careers often face high spending pressures, high social expectations, lifestyle inflation that matches income growth, and a psychological sense that the income is permanent and more wealth-building can happen later. The combination means many high earners accumulate far less wealth than their income would suggest possible.