 TITLE: What Is Lifestyle Creep and How Can You Prevent It? CONTENT: Fighting Against Lifestyle Creep\n--------------------------------\nLifestyle creep can feel like progress. And in fact, continuously improving your lifestyle isn't a bad thing, as long as you're also minding your financial health and working toward long-term goals. To keep discretionary spending in check, consider these strategies:\n**Create a monthly budget and stick to it.** As your income increases, it's important to recalibrate your budget. Consider the 50\/50 rule: With this guideline, at least half of any additional money you earn should go to saving, paying down debt or investing and the other half is up for grabs. That way, every boost to your income is also a leg up toward reaching your financial goals in addition to improving your lifestyle.\n**Set long-term goals and track your progress.** Would you like the security of having six months of expenses in the bank? Have you started saving for a new car? Do you contribute to a 401(k) at work or a Roth IRA on your own? Big goals like these help you in the long run and give you another kind of success to focus on. Remember, retirement savings targets are often linked to your income, so you'll want to contribute more toward those accounts as your earnings grow.\n**Keep a lid on revolving debt.** Runaway debt is bad for your overall financial health and it's also a sign that your lifestyle is getting away from you. When you live beyond your means and run up debt, you're not positioning yourself well to achieve long-term financial goals like creating a nest egg or paying off your home. Maintaining too much revolving debt can also hurt your credit, which in turn makes you less financially resilient and can make it harder to secure the best terms on new debt such as a mortgage or car loan.\n**Automate your savings and investments.** Instead of relying on pure discipline to stick to your goals, setting up automatic payments to your savings and investment accounts each month can help you prevent your spending from ballooning out of control.\n**Be ready for retirement and other fluctuations in income.** Excess discretionary spending is especially troublesome when your income drops—for example, if you lose your job, retire or decide to slow your work schedule to raise kids. Lightening your debt load and lifestyle expenses can help position you for a wider range of life options. END