Vicious Cycle

“The more you earn, the more you’ll spend”. This is usually true to most of us who are earning a living. Recently, my younger colleagues and I had conversations on moving on to “greener pastures”. They were complaining how it is so unfair for them to get so much lower than their peers. Therefore, one of them contemplates on moving on to a job which pays better. She said that she badly needed a bigger pay because of commitments (who doesn’t??).

However, I cautioned them that with more, one will tend to spend more. This is a very natural human tendency unless one is extremely disciplined. Before you know it, the cycle continues and in less than a year with the bigger pay cheque, you will again find the need for an even bigger pay, so on and so forth. That explains the high turnover in today’s IT industry, at least.

In short, manage your spending before it manages you. I once read that it’s not how much you can earn (since it’s an endless cycle) but how much you can save that matters most. “Live below your means” sounds so simple but yet so hard to achieve.