By Gabriele Denaro · Published 20 September 2026 · Updated 6 October 2026
Lifestyle inflation is the tendency for spending to rise in step with income. A raise quietly turns into a nicer apartment, a newer car, more takeaway, until the gap between income and spending, the thing that actually builds wealth, has not grown at all in years.
Your net pay goes from €1,800 to €2,200 a month, a €400 raise. If your spending rises by €400, you save exactly what you saved before. If you keep half of it, you save €200 a month more, which is €2,400 a year. Same raise, very different effect on net worth.
It is rarely one big decision. It is dozens of small ones that each feel reasonable: a better phone plan, a bigger car, one more subscription. Nobody sits down and decides to save 0% of a raise. It simply happens, purchase by purchase, unless the savings rate is something you watch and not something you assume.
Spending more after a raise can be a good decision. The problem is the unconscious version, where nothing was chosen and the extra money disappeared. Decide on purpose how much of an increase goes to your life and how much to your future, ideally before the first higher payslip arrives.
Your savings rate over time is the line that shows it. If income has risen for three years and the savings rate has not, the raises went somewhere else. Patrimony tracks your net worth, and comparing its growth with your income gives you the same signal.
General educational information, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. It may be incomplete or out of date. Terms of use.