On this episode of the Personal Finance podcast, 21 money traps smart people still fall into.

Whoa. What's up everybody and welcome to the personal finance podcast.

I'm your host, Andrew, founder of mastermoney.com.

And today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be talking through 21 money traps,

smart people still fall into. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money Newsletter by going to Mastermoney.co slash newsletter. And don't forget to follow us

on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or whatever your favorite podcast player is. And you're

getting value out of this episode.

Consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite

podcast player. Now today, we're going to be diving into 21 money traps that smart people still

fall into. And I want you to kind of think through each of these and say to yourself,

am I falling into these are these issues that I am having with my current finances. Some of these are going to be things you may not have thought through before. And we're going to go through the statistics of each and every single one of these so that you know, hey, a lot of people are actually falling into these traps. And I want to make sure I am not one of them. So this is going to be an action-packed

episodes. Without further ado, let's get into it. All right, number one is lifestyle creep. Now,

to start this off, if you don't know what lifestyle creep is, as your income rises, if you're

spending also rises with your income or you exceed your new earnings, then you have lifestyle creep that is not healthy.

And for most people, as your income begins to rise, a lot of folks will also continue to spend

what they earn. And so this is how people stay in the paycheck to paycheck cycle. Even high earners

will stay in the paycheck to paycheck cycle if they let their lifestyle creep get out of hand.

Now, I am actually the type of person who believes that some lifestyle creep is good.

As your income starts to increase, you worked hard at your job, you worked hard at the new

certification, you worked hard to get that brand new degree, and as your income does increase,

you get a raise or you get a promotion or you get something else, you should spend a little bit more of your money. But you need to spend enough where it is controlled, where another portion of that money is also going towards future you. You're voting for future you to have financial freedom. And that's what we want for each and every single one of you. So as your income increases, I want you to spend some of it. In fact, I want you to spend

half of it as it increases. We follow what is called a 50-50 rule here where 50% of your income

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