When a high income still feels tight
I’ve met plenty of people with very good incomes who still don’t feel like they have much financial breathing room.
It’s not necessarily because they’re spending recklessly.
Often, it’s because over the years, more and more of their income has become committed.
The mortgage gets bigger. The kids get more expensive. Holidays improve. There might be an investment property or two.
On paper, they may be becoming wealthier.
But financially, they can actually have fewer choices.
If one person wanted to work four days a week, could they?
If they wanted to take six months off, would that be possible?
If an unexpected $50,000 expense came up, would it create a problem?
Or if their income dropped for a while, how much of their lifestyle would have to change?
I think this is an important distinction, particularly in our 40s and 50s.
We often measure financial progress by what we’ve accumulated — the value of our home, super, investments and other assets.
But another measure is simply:
How much room have we created in our financial life?
Room for something to go wrong.
Room to change our mind.
Room to work less.
Room to spend money on something important without worrying about it.
And sometimes, room to say no to something we no longer want to do.
That doesn’t mean we should avoid taking on commitments or keep huge amounts of money sitting in cash.
It simply means that building wealth and building financial flexibility aren’t always the same thing.
Ideally, we want both.
Because having more money is valuable. But having more choices is often what we wanted the money for in the first place.