Lifestyle Inflation

Lifestyle inflation is the reflex of spending more the moment you earn more, so a raise leaves your savings rate unchanged. It's the single most common reason high earners stay broke: each upgrade — the bigger apartment, the newer car, the better gym — becomes the new baseline you can no longer cut. The countermeasure is mechanical rather than moral: automatically route a fixed share of every raise to savings before it reaches your checking account, and let lifestyle rise with what's left.