Not everyone can make enough money to stop working and retire early. But anyone can stop making things more difficult for themselves by constantly moving their own goalposts.
If every time you earn more money or receive a promotion or pay rise you tell yourself that you “deserve” a better house or car or holiday or whatever then all you do is tie yourself to working for longer. Not everyone WANTS to retire early, but it is a very small and select group who genuinely would continue to work if they no longer needed to. If you are not one of those people then consider what you are doing to your retirement date by continually ‘rewarding’ yourself whenever you earn more.
I hear the excuses all the time: “But I’ve worked hard for this!”
“I deserve some pleasures in life, don’t I?”
“People in my position should live in a bigger house / drive a nicer car!”
“Why shouldn’t I have nice things? I’ve earned them!”
And often these words come from some really talented, successful and smart people. But it isn’t the intelligence of these people that is the problem. These statements are not made by a rational thinking mind but by an out-of-control ego.
It’s not that they need a bigger house. It’s their ego that needs the bigger house. Or whatever it is that is the “reward” this time.
Getting control of one’s ego is never easy. But it is essential if one is to maximise satisfaction in life. An ego will attempt to strangle the life out of any attempt to adopt good financial habits. An ego needs constant feeding and is always hungry for more. It is never satisfied. It will do everything it can to get what it wants. And when it has that it will want more the next time.
Spending all your earnings on rewarding yourself is simply pandering to your ego. It is a bad money habit and makes no sense from the point of view of sound financial management.
Bad money habits are bad. Whichever way you look at them. Don’t let your ego persuade you otherwise.