There's only one thing better than a lot of money

... Not needing a lot of money.

You need money, in fact, most of us need every cent of our income to fund our lifestyles. We've done this to ourselves. 3 years ago when you were making $10,000 less you managed to make it work, but now here you are 3 years later and you are struggling to make your higher income work. This is called lifestyle creep. With every raise you got, you increased your lifestyle just that much. This wouldn't be a huge problem if we only lived in the present, but, of course, we don't. Our entire financial lives are lived in preparation for the future. When your lifestyle creeps up with your income, you've just become more and more dependent on your income. Every retirement looks different, but there is one universal guarantee in retirement: your income will be lower. If you spend the 20 years leading up to retirement increasing your lifestyle you'll really struggle to adjust to a lower income in retirement. Retirement planning is so focused on saving money. Yet, breaking your dependence on your income is a huge part of retirement success.

And actually, this is good news for you because now you know. For example, let's say you get into your 50s and retirement is looming and you aren't sure you can make it work. You can focus on breaking your dependency on your income. It'll be just the boost you need to get there. If you can start saving 20-30% of your income, you not only are saving money for retirement but you now also only need 70% of your income to live on. This will be a HUGE boon when it comes to making your retirement income work for you.