Please read (Part 1) of Replacing Lifestyle Creep with Margin for the first five signs of lifestyle creep.
The sixth sign of lifestyle creep is when you try to stay on-trend with your wardrobe and fashion sense.
We can easily get caught up in staying on-trend and in season, but usually, we don\’t realize how much that costs and how expensive it is to replace those articles of clothing, probably before they even need to be replaced.
I experienced this first-hand when I stepped into my first senior finance leadership role, and I went out and bought suits. And if you have purchased a suit before, you know that you don\’t just buy the suit; there\’s a lot of other components that go along with it, not to mention that you have to get everything dry cleaned. There\’s an ongoing cost to maintain that look and style. Unfortunately, it can drain our pocketbooks and lead to less margin in our finances, especially when we don\’t necessarily need to go all out in that area.
The seventh sign is increasing our minimum requirements for traveling, whether upgrading your rental car, trading coach for first-class, or paying for extra bags that you don\’t necessarily need.
You may also sign up for a credit card with an annual fee that gets you into those luxury lounges at the airport. We can spend money on many things that inflate or increase our enjoyment in life. And there may be certain components worth paying for you, like TSA pre-check. But when it comes to early bird check-in, you may not actually need that. Either way, you probably haven\’t realized how much money you spend on unnecessary travel expenses.
The eighth sign of lifestyle creep is the acquisition of club memberships.
You know those wholesale stores that we waltz into, and we see all kinds of items we never knew we needed. We\’re pulled aside by kiosk attendants who can talk us into getting a water test, having our HVAC checked out, or maybe finally installing a solar package on our homes. Many of us walk out with those appointments or purchase those components from these big box stores, and it wasn\’t something that we put any research into. These are typically high-dollar items that you would generally spend a lot of time researching beforehand, but we get caught off guard when we\’re grocery shopping. We often end up with something that we didn\’t need in the immediate future.
The ninth sign is being on a first-name basis with your food delivery folks, the people who bring you your McDonald\’s order.
Food delivery has become more and more popular, and it\’s so easy to jump on the app, order whatever food we want, and have it delivered straight to our door. The problem is that we often don\’t consider how expensive it is to have our burger and fries delivered to us. The solution? I think about how difficult it is to replicate that food, which typically comes down to whether it\’s ingredients or preparation. Thai or sushi are two things I frequent, and it would be decidedly difficult to prepare those entrees myself. That\’s something I\’ll have delivered since I don\’t have the option to make it myself. I encourage you to follow this same process. Think about how much you spend on food deliveries and how often you could reasonably prepare something similar for yourself instead.
The 10th and final sign is paying for unnecessary insurance.
It is both unfortunate and common. We run into a slick salesperson who panders to our fear or guilt or some other emotion and gets us to sign up for an additional policy for burial services, a supplementary life insurance policy, or something else we don\’t need. It\’s crucial to evaluate all of your policies based on your current season of life. Don\’t feel pressured to purchase policies that are not realistic for you.
This is not a comprehensive list, but it\’s essential for you to consider these ten signs of experiencing lifestyle creep. Any one of these habits severely reduces margin in your finances. And without that margin, you may end up utilizing unsecured debt to cover the costs of these expenses.
Today, my call to action is to look at your finances as though you were standing outside the metaphorical \”hot tub\” we discussed in Part 1. Which of the ten signs resonates most with you? After being pressured by slick salespeople, family, friends, or neighbors, which costs have you taken on without considering what you want for your life?
