There is this befuddling lifestyle creep math that didn’t hit me until I saw the math. It is one of those things that if I pose this to you as a question, you would probably know the answer. But I would not have bet that everyone knows the magnitude of the impact. Nick Magguilli at Of Dollars and Data helped another guy deconstruct the effect of lifestyle creep on your retirement timeline. We have always been warned that we should be more aware of how we spend our money and not succumb to lifestyle creep if we wish to achieve our financial goals. To put it simply, if you get a $1,000 salary increase, you have more financial bandwidth. I could choose to alleviate the stress in my life by hiring a maid instead of doing some stuff myself. That is a kind of lifestyle creep. Necessary for some people but...