Skip to main content

Are you falling into a lifestyle trap?

You can also read this on BeingFinWise
__

 Almost everyone wants to have an amazing lifestyle - with best possible food in best possible places, awesome travel destinations, a swanky car, few trending gadgets, elite memberships and many other symbols which can proudly announce- "I have arrived".

 Yet a lot of us get so obsessed with chasing this lifestyle that before we realize, we are on a downward spiral and caught in the vortex of lifestyle trap. This becomes more pronounced when our income/ sources of earning fails to keep pace with lifestyle inflation led spending.

 And this is a sure shot sign of you falling into lifestyle trap. The best step to avoid chasing lifestyle. The next best option is to realize that you are falling into this trap.

 Here are five signs that you are falling into a lifestyle trap.
  • You are looking to upgrade your "I have arrived" possessions like iPhone, car, Fitbit etc. rather too  frequently. And often when you don't even need them or exiting one would more than suffice.
  • Your definition of affordability is characterized by easy access to loan. For instance you can "afford" to upgrade your car to Honda City because you are eligible for something like Rs. 999,999 car loan.
  • You have made more than half serious inquiry or even taken a personal loan for funding your day to day wants and desires, something you could have done without.
  • You are short of cash since few days before the salary day, thanks to the ongoing end of season fashion sale, eating out 5 days a week, attending expensive concerts etc. And alongside, you are also probably wondering how will you manage to pay your credit card bill in full.
  • Any rise in income is followed by a disproportionate increase in expenses because - you have "arrived"  in life.
While chasing a good lifestyle is not something that I should be sermonizing about, but if chasing this lifestyle has some serious long term financial implications, maybe you need to rethink.

 It's better to prevent falling into lifestyle trap rather than looking for solutions when it is late and may come at a cost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

The Forest

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance. After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came ...
10 comments
Read more

Survival

Dark clouds were looming at the horizon. In few minutes they would have traveled few miles in westward direction and came closer. This is not usually the scene at noon in the hottest month of the year. Dark clouds meant something ominous. Probably sign of an impending storm or maybe a cyclone approaching. Sea is a capricious lady. Bay of Bengal was no different. It was infamous for cyclones, and Orissa was often at the receiving end of nature’s fury. Ramdas was few miles into the sea. So were his brethrens of the fishermen community. There were around a hundred boats in the sea that day. No one anticipated the storm. So no one even thought of staying back at the shore and miss out on their livelihood of the day. Ramdas was alone in his boat. He owned the boat. His son helped him with his job. They managed to get enough as to earn a square meal a day. They had a good rapport with others of fishing community. But of late that relationship was breaking down. No reasons for that. Nor wa...
8 comments
Read more

Child Labor

He was 10 years old. When asked he said that he was 15 years old. He didn’t know why. It was just that his master told him to do so. His name was Raju. When he was born, he was named as Shivkumar, but that name did not suit his master. So his name was changed. His master owned a small juice shop in some big institute, with around 500 people. Most of these students were his customers. They visited him regularly for juice, cold drinks, eatables, cigarettes etc. This was a popular hangout, chiefly because of large credit extended by Sharmaji Raju had 3 other siblings -Two sisters of age 13 and 11 respectively and a brother of 7 years. The eldest sister worked in a small carpet making unit. She has been employed since 3 years and worked for 12 hours a day without taking and day off. Probably, in a year or two she will be married to someone from a nearby village. Probably her family would get few thousand rupees in bargain! The younger sister was employed full time with a sort of well to ...
6 comments
Read more

Respect the sentiments

How often do we hear the above mentioned words? Especially in situations when there are chances of someone not taking anything well, or a comment not going down well with audience; in the situations when one needs to be politically correct and socially correct and be seen as morally upright. But if we remove the facade of the mushy gushy all-OK things, we can look into sort of ugly interiors of what respecting the sentiments mean ... and what it hides. Some of these reasons for expecting someone to respect the sentiments can be - 1. Person/ groups whose sentiments need to be respected are not open minded enough to hear a counter point of view, and my not be capable of any rational thoughts in that matter 2. There is something undesirable, or something ugly, or even something cancerous that needs to be hidden. 3. The truth might be extremely uncomfortable one, and ignorance might be a better option. 4. Deviation from the accepted norms is not desired. Reason - It has never been done so ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All for a Car

"Boss, I want a car" "What? "Yes. I want a car" The boss thought for a moment. Ravi was asking for a car. Maybe he needed one. He could give him one for an hour or so. The boss was the owner of the agency, which dealt in dealing with distribution of FMCG products of a big company and was a person who had a soft corner for his employees, something which is rare in such type of work. Ravi was a small time computer operator earning Rs 5000 a month at the agency. The job involved sitting in front of a computer in an air conditioned room and punching orders and preparing the bills on the company software. But the demand for a car was a bit shocking. No employee ever asked him for a car. "Why do you need a car?" "Boss. I am getting married" "Good. Congratulations" "Thank you boss." "So do you ..." "Sir, I have told my to be father in law that I earn 35000 a month and have my own car. I'll be engaged soon. He ...
6 comments
Read more