<commit_before>---
title: 5 Ways to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
date: 2018-09-10 11:00:00 -04:00
published: false
categories:
- Budget
- Career
image: "/uploads/glasses.jpg"
posts:
- How to Trick Yourself into Sticking to a Budget
- What You Should Do After Paying Off Debt
- Budgeting 101
---

According to a [2015 Nielsen study](https://www.fa-mag.com/news/nielsen--even-many-high-earners-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-22704.html), 25 percent of Americans earning over $150,000 are living paycheck to paycheck. That number increases to roughly one-third for households earning $50,000 to $100,000 and then to half for those making $49,999 and less. To put that into perspective, the average income in America is about $59,000. That means that people who are earning more than double the average income still feel like they are living paycheck to paycheck.

There are a lot of complicated reasons for this. First of all, many people live in large cities. The cost of living in our cities is skyrocketing, especially in places like New York, DC, and San Francisco. These increasing living costs make it difficult even for high-earning folks to have money leftover. Another likely cause for this is lifestyle creep. Lifestyle creep is when, as you earn more money, you also spend more money. This ultimately means that you continue to live paycheck to paycheck, no matter how much you earn.

In this article, I will give advice on how you can avoid lifestyle creep in your own life. I will also include anecdotes from members of my free Facebook group, Money Circle, about their own experiences with lifestyle creep. Some people have taken steps to avoid the increase in spending that comes with an increase in income. Some have struggled with controlling their spending, and others have made specific, valuable lifestyle changes.

## Revisit Your Budget

Don’t just assume that since you have more money coming in now that you don’t have to manage a budget anymore. This is an easy trap to fall into as you start to earn more. You’re feeling less strapped for cash, so your money starts to flow more easily. But this is actually a great time for you to step back and revisit your budget.

You should figure out how much extra money will be coming in once your income increases. From there, calculate your fixed expenses again, and see if there is anything that will change. Figure out if there are areas where you want to increase your investment, like savings or debt repayment.

Amber is doing this with her husband: “Creating a plan is helping my husband and me right now. He's in the middle of a job transition. Actually acknowledging the pay increase, the desire not to lifestyle creep, and making a set plan for how we will allocate the 'savings' (because some will go to accelerating debt payoff) has done wonders.”<commit_msg>Updated 5 Ways To Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck<commit_after>---
title: 5 Ways to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
date: 2018-09-10 11:00:00 -04:00
categories:
- Budget
- Career
image: "/uploads/glasses.jpg"
posts:
- How to Trick Yourself into Sticking to a Budget
- What You Should Do After Paying Off Debt
- Budgeting 101
---

According to a [2015 Nielsen study](https://www.fa-mag.com/news/nielsen--even-many-high-earners-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-22704.html), 25 percent of Americans earning over $150,000 are living paycheck to paycheck. That number increases to roughly one-third for households earning $50,000 to $100,000 and then to half for those making $49,999 and less. To put that into perspective, the average income in America is about $59,000. That means that people who are earning more than double the average income still feel like they are living paycheck to paycheck.

There are a lot of complicated reasons for this. First of all, many people live in large cities. The cost of living in our cities is skyrocketing, especially in places like New York, DC, and San Francisco. These increasing living costs make it difficult even for high-earning folks to have money leftover. Another likely cause for this is lifestyle creep. Lifestyle creep is when, as you earn more money, you also spend more money. This ultimately means that you continue to live paycheck to paycheck, no matter how much you earn.

In this article, I will give advice on how you can avoid lifestyle creep in your own life. I will also include anecdotes from members of my free Facebook group, Money Circle, about their own experiences with lifestyle creep. Some people have taken steps to avoid the increase in spending that comes with an increase in income. Some have struggled with controlling their spending, and others have made specific, valuable lifestyle changes.

## Revisit Your Budget

Don’t just assume that since you have more money coming in now that you don’t have to manage a budget anymore. This is an easy trap to fall into as you start to earn more. You’re feeling less strapped for cash, so your money starts to flow more easily. But this is actually a great time for you to step back and revisit your budget.

You should figure out how much extra money will be coming in once your income increases. From there, calculate your fixed expenses again, and see if there is anything that will change. Figure out if there are areas where you want to increase your investment, like savings or debt repayment.

Amber is doing this with her husband: “Creating a plan is helping my husband and me right now. He's in the middle of a job transition. Actually acknowledging the pay increase, the desire not to lifestyle creep, and making a set plan for how we will allocate the 'savings' (because some will go to accelerating debt payoff) has done wonders.”
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.04340949033391916, 'fraction_numerical': 0.021265377855887523, 'mean_word_length': 4.313725490196078, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 3, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 3, 'https://': 2, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 2, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 2, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '1373831', 'n_tokens_mistral': 1469, 'n_tokens_neox': 1336, 'n_words': 919}