The email you’ve been looking forward to all year finally drops. Your heart does a little jump. You read the words: “Congratulations,” “promotion,” “salary adjustment.”
You’ve done it. You got the raise.
That first salary alert hits, and you feel it; that beautiful, extra cushion; you’re “richer-ish.” You can finally breathe. You can finally get that thing. You can finally stop worrying so much.
Fast forward six months. You’re checking your bank account with that familiar end-of-month anxiety. You have more money coming in, but… where is it all going?
If this sounds familiar, you’ve met the sneakiest, most silent thief of wealth: Lifestyle Creep.
Lifestyle Creep is the simple, unconscious process of your spending “creeping” up to match your new income. That “one-time treat” becomes a weekly habit. That “little upgrade” becomes your new normal. And just like that, you’re back on the financial treadmill, running paycheck to paycheck, just on a more expensive track.
This isn’t a personal failing; it’s a human one. We’re wired for it. Psychologists even have a name for it: the “hedonic treadmill.” We work hard for a new thing, we get it, we feel great… and then we adapt. That new, “better” thing becomes our new baseline. A study by Killingsworth, M.A., Kahneman, D., & Mellers, B. found that while money does buy happiness, it plateaus. After a certain point, more stuff doesn’t actually make us happier.
In Nigeria, where we all feel the pressure of a rising cost of living, getting a raise feels like a victory, but it’s also a test. It is reported that less than 50% of Nigerians have a fundamental grasp of essential financial principles. This is a huge improvement from before, but it means a lot of us are still learning the skills to manage our money effectively.
Learning to manage a raise is perhaps the most important money management skill of all. It’s the difference between earning more and actually building wealth.
So, how do you enjoy your new, hard-earned income without letting it vanish? You learn to spot the Habits. Here are the 5 biggest “lifestyle creep” Habits and how to avoid them.
Habit 1: Eating Out More
Before the raise, grabbing a ₦4,000 coffee and pastry was a once-a-month treat. Now, it’s a daily “I deserve it” ritual. That ₦5,000 Uber to work? It’s just easier than the bus. That ₦7,000 takeaway for lunch? You’re too busy to pack your own.
Individually, they’re small. But “small” is how lifestyle creep gets you.
- ₦4,000 coffee, 5 days/week = ₦20,000/week = ₦80,000/month
- ₦7,000 lunch, 5 days/week = ₦35,000/week = ₦140,000/month
Suddenly, you’re spending ₦220,000 a month, probably more than your entire old salary, on just coffee and lunch.
The Money Skill: The “Pay Yourself First” method is your shield. Before you buy a single thing, you must have a plan for your new money. The golden rule is to dedicate at least 50% of your raise (the “new” money) to your future self, savings, investments, or debt repayment.
If you got a ₦100,000 raise, ₦50,000 of it should be gone on payday, automatically moved to a place where you can’t spend it. This forces you to consciously decide what to do with the remaining ₦50,000, rather than unconsciously letting it all slip away.
Habit 2: The ‘I’ve Arrived’ Upgrade
This is the most dangerous Habit of all. It’s the “big one”, a decision that locks you into a much higher, non-negotiable monthly expense for years.
We’re talking about two things; a new car and a new apartment.
You get a raise, and you immediately think, “I’m tired of my small apartment.” You start talking to agents and browsing houses for rent in more expensive areas. You move from a ₦1 million-a-year apartment to a “nicer” one at ₦3 million a year.
Here’s the Nigerian-specific problem: that ₦3 million is due upfront. You drain your savings (and your raise) just to pay the rent, and you’ve now doubled your single biggest living expense. You’ve also doubled the commission for the agent and the agreement fees. You’re not just spending your raise; you’ve already spent next year’s raise, too.
The Money Skill: First, apply the “30-Day Rule” to any major purchase. Want it? Great. Wait 30 days. If you still need it (not just want it) after a month, you can consider it.
Second, be smart about how you upgrade. A nicer apartment is a great goal! But a massive, wealth-killing upfront payment isn’t. A true money management skill is finding a way to get the upgrade without destroying your cash flow. This is where you can be creative. For instance, using a facility like AltRent allows you to pay your annual rent, but in flexible monthly or quarterly installments. This frees up your cash, protects your savings, and turns your biggest financial shock into a predictable, budgeted expense. You get the upgrade and keep your financial peace.
Habit 3: The ‘Subscription Sedation’
We’re living in a subscription economy. That new raise makes it so easy to say yes.
- “Oh, a new streaming service? It’s just ₦4,500/month.”
- “A premium gym membership? It’s only ₦30,000/month.”
- “That new productivity app? ₦12,000/month? Sure!”
They’re small, recurring, and they add up in the background. It’s “sedation” because you get lulled into a state where you don’t even notice them, until you actually add them up and realize you’re paying ₦70,000 a month for things you barely use.
The Money Skill: Conduct a “subscription audit” every three months. Open your bank statement and highlight every single recurring payment. For each one, ask yourself:
- Did I use this in the last 30 days?
- Does it stillbring me joy or value?
- Can I use a free version or a cheaper alternative?
Be ruthless. One of the best financial habits is pruning your recurring expenses.
Habit 4: The ‘I’ll Save What’s Left’ Fantasy
This is the mindset that “saving” is what you do with the money that’s “left over” at the end of the month.
After your raise, you feel richer. You spend on nicer things, you eat at better restaurants, you’re more generous with friends. You tell yourself, “With this new salary, I’m sure there will be plenty left to save.” But there never is. This is Parkinson’s Law for money: your expenses will always rise to meet your income. You’ve given every other priority (restaurants, Ubers, subscriptions) your money first, and you’re making your future get the leftovers.
The Money Skill: As we said in Habit 1, you must Pay Yourself First. Your savings and investments are not optional. They are the first and most important “bill” you pay.
The real secret? Automate it. Don’t let the money even touch your main account. Set up a standing order from your salary account to a separate investment account. This is where the money from your raise should go, not to a savings account where inflation will eat it, but to a growth engine.
Send that money to a platform that allows you to ethically grow your wealth by investing in things like Gold, Sukuk (ethical bonds), or real estate. By automatically moving a part of your raise into a diversified portfolio, you are building a future, not just funding a more expensive present.
Habit 5: The Social Upgrade
Your raise often comes with a new title, new responsibilities, and… new colleagues. Your work friends who used to happily join you at the local bukka now only want to go to the high-end lounge in VI where a bottle of water costs ₦3,000.
There’s an intense, unspoken pressure to “fit in” with your new income bracket. You start spending to match the people around you, a more expensive watch, a pricier bag, holidays you can’t really afford. This is “Keeping Up with the Joneses,” and it’s a game you can never win.
The Money Skill: Define your own values. This is less a money skill and more a life skill. What do you actually care about?
Maybe you value freedom, so you’d rather invest that money. Maybe you value travel, so you’ll happily cut back on expensive dinners to save for a big trip.
It’s okay to say, “You guys have fun, I’ll skip this one.” The people who matter will respect it. And the ones who don’t? You’re learning to manage them, too.
Remember A Raise Isn’t for Spending, It’s for Building
Your raise is a powerful tool. You worked hard for it. You should enjoy it, but the key is to enjoy it consciously.
The best money management skill is intention. A raise doesn’t have to mean a more expensive lifestyle. It can mean:
- Becoming debt-free faster.
- Hitting your financial independence goal 5 years earlier.
- Starting that side business.
- Building a 6-month emergency fund that makes you invincible to life’s surprises.
Don’t let your hard-earned money just disappear. Use 10-20% of your raise to improve your current life. Use the other 80-90% to build your future one. That is how you stop earning a living and start designing a life.
