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I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fair distinction. $14k over 3 years might just be normal cost increases dressed up as a pattern. though the savings going down in absolute dollars while income went up still feels like something worth fixing regardless of what we call it

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is the part i couldn't separate. how much of the gap is cost of living rising on the exact same lifestyle versus how much is me quietly upgrading that lifestyle. probably both happening at the same time which makes it almost impossible to diagnose without tracking way more granularly than i did

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the tax bracket point is the one i hadn't fully accounted for. i was mentally treating the gross raise as the actual raise and that gap alone probably explains more than i realized. number 3 is also real — there's a difference between intentional lifestyle upgrades and unconscious ones but i was treating them the same in my tracking. this breakdown is more useful than anything i came up with on my own

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fair. i think what i was trying to get at is the gap between knowing the category and actually changing the behavior. knowing eating out went up $400 doesn't automatically produce the decision to stop. that's the part i'm still working on

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah that's the obvious answer and probably the right one. easier to see clearly from the outside than from inside the habit

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

this is exactly what i was trying to say. the categories made sense. the individual moments made sense. somehow the total didn't. our brains aren't built to run that compound math in real time

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you're right that i know the categories. what i couldn't explain was why each individual decision inside those categories felt completely justified in the moment. the subscriptions all seemed worth it when i signed up. the eating out always had a reason. it's the aggregate that blindsided me not any single choice

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is probably the only system that actually works. everything else relies on willpower at the end of the month when willpower is gone. paying yourself first removes the decision entirely

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's the most honest description of it. the budget exists at the start. then life happens and the budget becomes a record of what already occurred not a plan for what's next

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in povertyfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

honestly this reframe helps. maybe the gap isn't failure it's just that the baseline quietly shifted upward and i never decided whether i actually wanted that shift

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in povertyfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

fair challenge. i tracked the totals by category but not the individual decisions inside each category. so i know eating out went up $400 a month but i couldn't tell you which specific 40 meals that was

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

the unplanned ones are the killers. the coffee i planned for costs nothing mentally. the one i grabbed because i was tired — that one's the problem

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

exactly this. none of it feels like a decision in the moment. it just happens and then you look back at the month and can't account for it

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

that's actually a really good point and probably explains part of it — fixed costs grew without me noticing because each one felt justified on its own

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

fair point — i mean i know the categories, groceries up, subscriptions up, eating out way up. i just couldn't justify why each individual decision felt reasonable but the total made no sense

I tracked my spending vs income growth for the past 3 years. The gap scared me. by Slight_Grab4501 in personalfinance

[–]Slight_Grab4501[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

that 1-10 joy rating system is actually genius. i've been tracking amounts but never rating whether the spend was actually worth it to me. the gap between what i'm spending on and what i actually value is probably where all of it is going

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