This week, I’m profiling an article by Crystal over at “Give Me Back My Five Bucks”. Crystal recently wrote an article about lifestyle inflation which got me thinking about how this might apply to my own life.
I never thought about myself as someone who fell victim to this idea of “trading up” or “keeping up with the Joneses” but it turns out that I love to do just this.
I don’t care about status symbols or designer clothes but I love my toys. I like books, movies, technology, and other related accoutrements and am quite happy upgrading to the latest and greatest version of whatever.
What I enjoyed about this article is that Crystal offered a balanced opinion on lifestyle inflation. She offered her own experience and showed the differences between two different years. Having this idea in the back of my mind while I considered what to do with my tax return helped me appreciate that maybe I didn’t need a brand new laptop at this point – I ended up using it for other some outstanding expenses that had been kicking around for a while. Not super-sexy, but nice to cross off my to-do list.
Needless to say, check out her fantastic article to find out more:
Can lifestyle inflation be avoided?
As we get older and progress through our careers, it’s natural to see our salaries increase with raises and new jobs – and as a result, the cost of how we live our lives will likely increases as well.
This is lifestyle inflation – an increase in the amount (or even the type) of stuff that we purchase. Whether it’s a result of wanting to keep up with the Jonses’, or a feeling of self-entitlement, or even small changes (like buying name brand orange juice instead of the generic brand), it can (and likely will) happen to even the most budget-conscious person….read more here
[…] This week, I’d like to talk about an article that talks about grocery smarts that was posted on another PF (Personal Finance) blog that I am a big fan of – Making Sense of Cents. […]