After a very productive tax season, I find myself analyzing my lifestyle spending more than I have in a few years. I’m very aware of how lifestyle creep, also known as lifestyle inflation, can sneak up on you and I try to be aware of it. However, it seems that sometimes just being aware does not help to mitigate the problem, afterall you work hard to have a better life and want to enjoy it. Thus, as I’m making some plans for the future I find myself analyzing my budgets and with it lifestyle creep.
Lifestyle creep usually carries a negative connotation, you want to avoid it, but do you really? I think it’s better to control it rather than try to fight it. There has to be a balance between rewarding yourself now and in the future, otherwise you won’t be as motivated to continue to work hard. For business owners it’s even more important to manage not just personal lifestyle creep but also business-style creep. There are multiple ways that business owners can manage lifestyle creep for their business and personally:
Use a tracking system
The first step in managing your business or personal finances, and thus lifestyle creep, is to have a way to track it. You can do this through your accounting system or budgeting system. To manage lifestyle creep, your main prerogative is to track how much money you spend now vs how much you save. Personally, all my savings outside of my retirement accounts are in my business. I save a percentage of all my sales and so my savings always grow with increases in my business income.
Analyze your spending
Look back over a three to six month period to analyze where your money has gone and make an informed decision on how to budget it today. If you don’t have any historical numbers to analyze and you just guess how much you’re spending it’s hard to make good budgeting decisions. Oftentimes I find that my initial budgets for certain categories are either inadequate, too generous, or completely off the mark. I’ve personally had to adjust my budgets multiple times when I initially set them up before I found an amount that works.
Save vs Spend
Sometimes having too much money can be just as bad as having too little. For a business owner if your budgets are too generous you won’t save enough or be ready for the inevitable lean times. Additionally, part of any business budget is how much the owner makes. This is a great opportunity for business owners to manage personal lifestyle creep because you can directly control how much of your new business income goes to you personally.
Decrease expenses
Decrease your budget or expenses where you find you are spending more frivolously. Depending on the type of budgeting system you use, an increase in sales can mean different increases in budgets. If all your new sales go into your operating budget then you are likely to be more frivolous with your general business spending. You can mitigate this by allocating either a percentage of sales or a fixed amount to your operating budget.
Enjoy more leisure
It may be time to start working less and enjoy more leisure. Business owners are always focused on being productive with time and taking time off can feel like procrastinating. It’s good to remember that taking time off can be a great way to disconnect from your business which in turn lets you recharge and increase your productivity.
With the close of this year’s tax season I’ve had more time to make plans for the future. Lifestyle creep has played a big role as I analyze and budget. A year ago I had fewer possibilities and thus my budgets last year are going to look different from what I plan for the future. For business owners this is even harder because you don’t have just a personal budget plus your income has a much higher degree of variability than someone with a full time job.
I think lifestyle creep can be one of the toughest aspects to manage when you have a growing business. Your budgets are usually more than sufficient but since you can always save more, it can feel like you are never saving enough. To combat this, I have a savings goal and as long as I meet that savings goal I allow myself to enjoy the expensive wine, impromptu trips, and occasional impulse purchase.
This article originally appeared on Forbes