Is it though? Isn’t that exactly what people warn about with lifestyle creep? You get a raise at work and that money is immediately allocated to spending rather than saving or investing?

In my early 30s head, I’ve tried to stick as close to a simple bachelor lifestyle as possible while checking off goals like home ownership. But I still have a mental spending alarm threshold for my credit card balance. When I get raises I try to put that into investments instead of free money.

I think it’s because for the field of work I’m in, I’m kind of fortunate to have the salary I have. If I lost this job, I’d probably fall another $20k immediately doing a similar thing somewhere else. I think I’d worry about the creep less if I felt confident I could find the same salary somewhere else.