A 28-year-old professional has sparked a discussion after saying that earning ₹ 1.2 lakh a month still feels no different from earning ₹ 25,000 a month.
“One day me and my friend started calculating our unexpected expenses which included sutta breaks, random eating out(despite paying for cook simultaneously), drink and fuel for geti. Yeah, start accounting man,” wrote another. “Everyone gets hit by lifestyle inflation. That control lies with you and don’t consider SIP as an expense. What usually happens is people go crazy in upgrading their lifestyle immediately and spend on unnecessary things. When upgrading is possible, do it gradually. Your emotions and spending instincts would be under control by then,” wrote one user. (Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
It turned out around 3-4 lac per person in around 4-5 months. Use any expense tracking app on your phone and record all expenses and investments in that – do this for 3 months and you’ll get a fiar idea of where is the additonal money going,” said another. “One way of getting it right is, when your earning rises from 25k to 1.2L, live for atleast one more year as if your income is still 25k.
Concluding the post, the 28-year-old questioned whether lifestyle inflation was becoming a problem and asked people who had faced a similar situation how they managed to control their spending without making life “unnecessarily miserable”. (Also Read: Noida techie moves to Bengaluru for work, loses job within a month: ‘No idea what the best thing to do is’ ) One user wrote, “On your wants buddy, for needs 25K PM is also enough, someday sit around and calculate how much you spend on your food mind you home cooked and necessary meals not outings and shit. “Lifestyle inflation usually creeps in quietly, track where the extra ₹ 95 is going for 2 – 3 months first easier to cut once you can actually see the leaks,” suggested a third user. Financial maturity doesnt come overnight, that’s why I said live as you were for at least one more year.
