Doubling My Salary Didn’t Make Me Rich. This One Mom Hack Did!
My salary doubled last year. I was finally going to be rich.
First month: "I deserve a better car. These fuel costs are necessary for my status."
Second month: "Premium Spotify? Netflix? YouTube Premium? Disney+? Of course I need them all. I'm not some caveman."
Third month: "Who eats regular bread? I only buy artisanal sourdough now. It's called self-care."
Fourth month: "Yes, I need both AirPods AND premium noise-canceling headphones. What if one runs out of battery?"
Fifth month: Looking at my bank account: Still zero savings.
Called my mom to complain about being broke.
She laughed and said, "When you earned $3000, you were broke. Now you earn $6000, you're still broke. See the pattern?"
She asked me to list my essentials.
Me: "Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Prime Video, Paramount+..."
"How many shows do you watch?"
"Two. But I might want to watch the others someday."
She stared at me until I felt my soul leave my body.
So I tried something: Pretended my old salary was my only salary.
Put the extra money in a separate account called "Money I Don't Have."
My brain: "What extra money? We're poor again! Back to regular bread!"
Three months later: More savings than I've ever had.
Life lesson: Your expenses are like a gas - they will expand to fill whatever container (income) you give them. Make the container smaller.
(Update: Just checked my "Money I Don't Have" account. Turns out money you pretend you don't have turns into money you actually have.)
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