Here Is the Easiest Path to Build Wealth
Read this if you aren't saving enough money right now
The best financial advice is what you will actually follow through on.
There’s often a huge gap between how you should manage your money and how you will manage your money.
Most people don’t like change.
Even if someone is deeply unhappy, they are resistant to making major changes to their day-to-day lives. Never underestimate the power of inertia—it’s part of human nature.
In this post, I explain one of the most undiscussed topics in personal finance; treating new money like it doesn’t exist, aka “reverse lifestyle inflation.”
The fastest way to save a lot of money (that most people won’t do)
Let’s get back to that gap between the right money move “on paper” and why that is often unrealistic for most people.
The easiest way to save more money is to address your two big fixed expenses.
Housing
Transportation
I’ve written 4,000-word book chapters on how you can reduce your spending on housing and transportation.
Many people responded in a big way to that chapter of The Financial Freedom Equation because they know how much of their paycheck gets eaten up by fixed costs. They agree with most of my advice on reducing those fixed costs, but very few make any changes.
Why?
Because changing where you live and how you get around town will dramatically change their day-to-day lives. People are resistant to change—especially when it comes to big changes like where they live.
Reverse lifestyle inflation
The fastest way to improve your finances is to make big, life-altering decisions. But there is another way. It’s slower, painless, and doesn’t require immediate or even big changes to your daily life.
Here are seven words that can change the trajectory of your financial life:
Treat new money like it doesn’t exist.
If you just got a promotion that will clear an extra $500 per paycheck, call your bank and set up an automatic transfer of $500 from your checking account to your savings/investing account every payday.
Next year, you get a cost of living adjustment that nets you an extra $50 per paycheck; call up your bank and bump up your automatic savings by $50.
Treat new money like it doesn’t exist.
You may have heard of the term “lifestyle inflation,” which refers to the phenomenon where the amount of money you spend rises as your income increases—making it impossible to build a high savings rate. The impacts of lifestyle inflation are subtle and seem harmless at first—but left unchecked can kill your odds of reaching financial independence because you’ll need more and more money to maintain your standard of living.
Think of this strategy of treating new money like it doesn’t exist as “reverse lifestyle inflation.” It won’t feel like a big deal immediately, and that’s the whole point. It’s not painful, so you are more likely to stick with it.
Remember, the essence of reverse lifestyle inflation is to treat new money like it does not exist and redirect it to savings and investments. Let’s dive into some examples of how reverse lifestyle inflation works and how it can help you increase your savings rate and build wealth.
First, I’ll create some hypothetical numbers so that I can illustrate the power of reverse lifestyle inflation:
You make $50,000
You currently save $0 per year
You get a 3% annual raise
You save 100% of your annual raise
Your savings/investments earn a 5% annual return
Now, let’s run through some scenarios where you build wealth by treating new money like it does not exist.
What to do when you get a pay raise
If you redirect your annual raise to savings, you can go from a 0% savings rate to a 26% savings rate in 10 years. By year 28, you would be saving 56% of your income.
That savings rate combined with compounding returns eventually adds up to a serious investment portfolio.
After 10 years, you’d have $105,000. After 28 years, you’d have $1.28 million.
That is a life-changing amount of money without having to make drastic changes to your lifestyle.
To be clear, you will need to cut back on your spending, at least in “real” or “after inflation” dollars. If inflation is 2% per year, what I am advocating for here would effectively cut your spending by 2% per year. You will need to make adjustments to your lifestyle, but they are so small and gradual that almost everyone could begin following through right now.
This math looks promising, but there are even more opportunities to boost your savings rate and the size of your portfolio. Let’s review two more scenarios where you can treat new money like it doesn’t exist.