The 7 Personal Finance Articles We Loved This Week
At the end of this month, Peter and I will finally be moving — a day I’ve been looking forward to since we moved in together less than a year ago. We moved into our current place out of necessity, fully knowing it would be temporary, and that we’d eventually move somewhere with more space, both in our physical home life and our budgets.
Now that I’ve made the last of my rent payments on our current apartment, I am already feeling the creeping lure of lifestyle inflation. I’m going to be saving about $250 month on rent, and I can’t help but think of all the “extra” little things I could start spending that money on. Like an unlimited monthly subway pass to make my life feel easier (which I don’t need, because I work from home three days a week and the office, my yoga studio, grocery stores, etc. will all be well within walking distance) or going out to eat more often (which I don’t even miss now that I’ve cut it down to about once a week). It is important to me to decorate the new space pretty quickly, which I’m saving up for, but beyond that, I know I’ll be struggling to resist other spending impulses.
For that reason, I really loved ESI‘s last pick this week from Ask Allea. While I do aspire to continue earning more money, I really loved how she summed up how earning more (or saving more in one specific area) can personally lead to lifestyle inflation:
Honestly, I got good at budgeting because I have to, so it’d be hard to know where to set reasonable limits when there’s significantly more money involved.
Enter: lifestyle inflation. It’d be rough fighting lifestyle inflation — the idea that when you make more, you spend more. I’d want more than I truly need — that newer car, another pair of slightly-different black boots, an apartment with a pool — and it’d be that much easier to get it.
Those things are not bad. Don’t hear me saying that. I think that I’m so used to saying “no,” that getting to say “yes” would likely get out of control for me. I know myself that well.
Be sure to check out the full post, as well as the rest of this week’s awesome roundup!
1. Pirates Of The Cryptobbean – Halt Catch Fire
“Most of the people who venture into this strange land of uncertainty are daydreaming about the romantic, entertaining, happy ending stories. But I have to tell ya, there lies more under the surface. This dreaded battlefield is much darker, more contradictional, full of blood, treachery, and conspiracy.”
2. Watching Your Dad Go Through Bankruptcy – Three Thrifty Guys
“Charlie, the bank called us in today. They are going to liquidate all our assets and shutdown the farm. We thought we had things under control, but our expenses were starting to get out of control. The bank didn’t think we could make the money back with where were at or could be in the next couple of years.”
3. Financial Whataboutism: Excuses Are Costing Investors Lots Of Money – The College Investor
“On a low level, financial whataboutism is a more egregious version of the old ‘Keeping Up With The Jonses’ mentality. It comes from the Soviet-era, where the goal is to minimize or distract by drawing comparison to another topic, potentially an irrelevant one. But the sad fact is, people fall for it. And when it comes to money and financial topics, it can be costly.”
4. How A Bank Error In My Favor Earned Me $100,000 and I Got to Keep it. Really. – Minafi
“I’ve been scared to write this post. It could paint me a bit of a negative light depending on your stance on the issue. This post also touches on a legal case I was involved in. If I seem slightly vague at times, that’s why. This is the 100% real story of how I ended up taking home $100,000 that – by all accounts – I should not have had.”
5. The Curse of Intelligence – A Wealth of Common Sense
“Smart people are often the most dangerous in terms of poor decision-making ability because they tend to be overconfident, make things too complex, and over-think things. They assume success or wealth in one arena (their job) will easily translate into another (the markets).”
6. The Art of Saying Yes – The Lifestyle Files
“Because all the interesting things are happening outside the comfort zone — personal growth, life lessons, experiences, knowledge, progress.”
7. Why I Don’t Want to Be [More] Rich – Ask Allea
“When money gets to too prominent or carries too much value in our lives, it tricks us into thinking that it’s the answer to our problems. But money is not security. It can’t withstand all the changes that life holds — money is not guaranteed.”
Image via Unsplash
