Haha, I read with much interest My15HWW’s post about us – A Household with $350K Annual Income Can Still Be Financially Struggling? It’s a great case study of how a Dual Income With Kids household can get themselves into financial trouble by making just a few too many bad lifestyle creep, spending and investment decisions at one time. While I won’t revisit the well-thought-out analysis, I reckon it would be useful to share what I was thinking at the time and how it backfired on me later on.

Paying more for convenience because it saves time

If I had to trace the root cause of the higher spending levels, it would come down to having the belief that I’m paying more for convenience because it saves time. That’s how I convinced myself to buy the private property in a good location that is close to transport nodes, amenities and schools....