Earning More doesn't Fix it,Financial Discipline Does

[White pawn]

If money alone made people wealthy, salary increases would end poverty.We live in a society where people believe the solution to financial struggle is simply “more money” ,"so much money", "plenty money."But history and everyday life prove otherwise.People earn more,yet their bank accounts remain empty. Why?Because income without discipline is like pouring water into a basket.

When money increases, lifestyle often increases faster too,new phones, bigger houses, more outings, louder status symbols, irrelevant expenses Instead of investment starts rising.Instead of wealth growing, expenses grow muscles.The problem isn’t income;it’s habits.
True wealth is built through intentional choices: budgeting, delayed gratification, investing, and understanding money psychology. Those who stay broke after earning more didn’t upgrade their mindset,only their spending.

Therefore,More money doesn’t fix poor money behavior. It exposes it.More money fixes cash-flow problems.It does not fix character, habits, or thinking problems.Fix the person,the habits then the money follows and stays!

[gibrab16]

This hits hard and it’s facts. A lot of people don’t want to admit it, but earning more just amplifies who you already are financially. If someone is careless with a small income, a bigger income just gives them bigger mistakes.

Lifestyle inflation is the real enemy. Raises come in, discipline goes out the window. Instead of assets, people collect liabilities and call it “success.” That’s why budgeting, self-control, and mindset matter more than the size of the paycheck.

Money is a tool, not a cure. Fix the habits first, or no amount of income will ever be enough.

[Hewlet]

Therefore,More money doesn’t fix poor money behavior. It exposes it.More money fixes cash-flow problems.It does not fix character, habits, or thinking problems.Fix the person,the habits then the money follows and stays!

If you're not judicious with little, there's no way you're going to be judicious when you're blessed with more. Financial prodense is neccesary right from the little you have to tye time when you are blessed with more.

If you're earning $200 a month and spends as much as $50 on your wants that are not part of your basic needs, when the income grows, there's a high tendency that you're going to spend too much also. If you're someone that's financially disciplined, your little can give you the peace of mind that someone else that's earning much but lack financial discipline can't get.

[demonica]

That's true. Rich people didn't become rich by just earning their salary and having only one source of income being paycheck to paycheck. These rich people have investments that made them rich. They're also financially knowledgeable on how to multiply their income. And that's why when you compare it to others. When you give poor a money to "help" them, they're most likely to use it buy things without thinking on how to keep the money circulating. It's because they often lack discipline and financial literacy. They'd immediately use the money to buy the things they want even if it has no return. Unlike with rich people, even if they have money, they don't just spend it easily on things.

[KiaKia]

Income without discipline is like pouring water into a basket? The question is where is all the money going? Certain amount of money can't fix some people's problem, even if their salary is increased it's not going to be enough, you think that everyone isn't serious that's why they are throwing money away? That's not true.

In today's world it's becoming less to see people who work hard and waste the money away because the money was never enough to begin with, I know someone who works alot and every money he made goes into bills alone, for someone like him to have something left for himself a double salary won't be enough..

The best way to say this if I were you is that money fix a lot of nonsense, for many people in the world today more money will help them a lot while there are those who just work hard for nothing because they don't even know why they are working so hard only to end up wasting the money later.

[Die_empty]

Therefore,More money doesn’t fix poor money behavior. It exposes it.More money fixes cash-flow problems.It does not fix character, habits, or thinking problems.Fix the person,the habits then the money follows and stays!

There is common idea that people's appearance or lifestyle should reflect thier financial status. This mindset has made people to increase their expenses immediately their income increases. Recently, a friend told me that I was living below my means and I was surprised since I was not lacking anything. The government just increased our salary and he expected me to change my car, clothing and other things. But he failed to understand that inflation has has risen and the cost of living is also increasing.  Increasing my expenses with the high rate of inflation is like living above my means. More money don't fixed financial problems if inflation is high. So it is important to maintain financial prudence at all times.

[retreat]

Money management is crucial nowadays because no matter how much money you earn, it will all be gone in an instant if you don't manage it well. That's why you'll find people with small salaries who can still save and even invest, while others have double-digit salaries but struggle with life and have no savings. It's all about financial management, as those with good money management skills will have no trouble in life since they're able to allocate their money wisely and avoid spending it on unnecessary things. They also minimize their lifestyle as much as possible, so whatever they earn will always be enough.

[Wiwo]

Financial decipline is attained long before the cash flow will start coming in, this is the stage where an individual already have their Financial education, skills and decipline to decide how to use the money that comes into their hands and what type of thing's that are necessary to spend on.

We have a popular saying in my place, it says, at least before you make money,  try make sense which implies that as you grow you need Financial wisdom as much as you need the cash flow.

Anyone without proper Financial management will end up not getting anything regardless of how much cash flow that passed through their hands.

[Solodoski]

I totally agree that earning more money fix nothing, but financial discipline does. Like you mentioned when you being to enrn more alot of things begin to change including your lifestyle,  but this is the time for you to stop and think. Some people after working for a very long time and living a good life while working, they go broke as soon as they retired or the lost their job, this is because they are not disciplined financially.  They want to improve their lifestyle,  but forget to increase their earnings,  they are satisfied with what they earn and don't to take risk in investments,  but they rather sit back and enjoy what they earn. I think the right thing to do when you have a good earning is to make a good budget, and also make good investments that can sustain your lifestyle. If this things are not done, you will definitely go broke the day you lose your job or retire.

[Miles2006]

I must agree with op yet, more money can as well fix problems. Most people intend to spend carelessly when money is much but, doesn’t change the fact people with financial discipline spend wisely. Only those in rich category spend luxuriously meanwhile a struggling individual will not spend in such manner reason why the rich buy expensive stuff, let’s differentiate between earning and not earning, firstly earning consistently will not get anyone poor rather earning without a good planning will only end a person in an unstable state meanwhile earning an average amount is considered the worst reason why people in this condition can’t provide the basic needs talk more of investing.

[marcus222]

I get the point, but it’s not always discipline vs stupidity. There’s a big gap between lifestyle inflation and just barely surviving. Plenty of people aren’t blowing money, they’re just crushed by rent, bills, and inflation. Discipline matters, but income still sets the ceiling.

[Maslate]

It goes to show that everything boils down to discipline, financially, emotionally and mentally. If you don't have these, earning more doesn't make you a better person at all and does not give you the real essence of having to earn more.

Instead, earning minimal amount with full of discipline and positive mindset, success will be easily achieved, not just financially but certainly in all aspects of life. People do not really need to earn more, but what we need is to earn consistently and regularly even with not so big amount.

[Makus]

Good topic, I've met people that say that if they earned higher than what they normally get monthly they would be able to sort themselves out and fix a whole lot but when they finally get the opportunity to make a higher amount nothing changes, infant the situation only gets worse, that means it is not really a matter of what they earn the problem is financial discipline. No amount of money would be enough for someone that lacks discipline or a ways to be productive, it doesn't matter how much you give them they will always fall back to zero

[slapper]

The lifestyle inflation diagnosis is effective on a person with a high income of $80k who pretends to have a high income of $150k. But what of the one at 35k where half the income goes to rent? How are you going to get the discipline when the math does not even close? The increase in wages has not kept pace with productivity since the 1970s. Housing costs have exploded. When individuals are unable to save, we refer to it as a character issue, but that is merely blaming the system organization.

The money exposes personality phenomenon cuts across the board. Increased income sometimes shows that a person was never bad with money, he/she was just poor. They were making tradeoffs that were impossible to make remarkably well. Give them breathing space and then they are all right. The habits were there all along; it was the margin for error.

[Vaculin]

With discipline, everything good follows. Unfortunately, having discipline is so hard to achieve, and its even underrated because some people have turn to adopt this mindset that once they earn more, financial discipline just follow.

This is a big mistake. People need to gain discipline first either through teachings or experience, so that when there are opportunities to earn more, the huge amount will not go into waste, instead of working to be discipline after you start earning bigger.

[Agbamoni]

More money doesnt entire gives us financial freedom, but it fixes our problem, whether now or in the future. We need both more money and good accountability of how we spend our money to be financially free. This is the reality of everything, and you open has made more open for everyone to see and learn from. Since I started making money, by now I thought everything would be better, because I keep making more money but ive realized how financially free I would have been if I do not have so much to care for.

[Dave1]

Therefore,More money doesn’t fix poor money behavior. It exposes it.More money fixes cash-flow problems.It does not fix character, habits, or thinking problems.Fix the person,the habits then the money follows and stays!

More money, more spending, it's the obvious route for most of us, and then if you really don't know how cash flow works or you don't have financial literacy, then it will really ruined your money and at the end of the day, you don't have some in the bank.

That's why it's very important that if let's say in the job, we have been promoted and so there will be a big increased in your salary. But you need to manage it the same as when you still not that much money so that at least you still that buffer around and then put it somewhere like in a big or invest that extra money of yours to grow in Bitcoin and any other asset so that in case of emergency, you will have something to get.

[LastKiss]

~snip~

Therefore, More money doesn’t fix poor money behavior. It exposes it.More money fixes cash-flow problems.It does not fix character, habits, or thinking problems. Fix the person,the habits then the money follows and stays!

When people have the opportunity to earn more money, many of them end up spending it on upgrading their lifestyle instead of managing it wisely. This situation can be summarized by the idea that "an increase in income leads to an increase in standard of living" While enjoying some improvements in life is natural, it is often better to keep our lifestyle aligned with our actual needs rather than constantly increasing expenses as our salary grows.

This issue is very common in my area. Many people already earn a decent salary, yet they continue to spend excessively on luxury items, entertainment, or social status. As a result, even with higher income, they may still struggle financially because their expenses rise at the same pace as their earnings. I strongly agree that financial discipline is essential. Managing money wisely becomes even more crucial when we have a family to support.

[X-ray]

I get the point, but it’s not always discipline vs stupidity. There’s a big gap between lifestyle inflation and just barely surviving. Plenty of people aren’t blowing money, they’re just crushed by rent, bills, and inflation. Discipline matters, but income still sets the ceiling.

Honestly even if you have lifestyle inflation from earning more, if you earn so much that everything become cheap you'd still gonna be rich. So it depends on how much you really earn.

If you earn a million a year, to preserve wealth you gonna be investing in golds, etc. Earn 10 million a year with your business and you gonna hire someone else to do the workload for you relating to wealth preservation.

If however you earn below $200k, saving is the way. Everything is relative.

[capokmerah]

Therefore,More money doesn’t fix poor money behavior. It exposes it.More money fixes cash-flow problems.It does not fix character, habits, or thinking problems.Fix the person,the habits then the money follows and stays!

What the OP explained is true, but not entirely wrong. I disagree that earning a lot of money doesn't solve problems.
When someone earns a lot, they naturally have a lot of money. When they have a lot of money, they naturally have something they can manage well or be financially disciplined about. If they don't have money, no matter how hard we try to be disciplined or manage our finances, what are we managing? Nothing! Well, it's even more perfect when we have a large income and plenty of money, and then we manage it accordingly.
The result: economic independence, sufficient savings, and a secure future!