Making a Good Income Doesn’t Automatically Make You Feel Secure
I want to talk about a money myth I think a lot of people carry: if you make good money, you should feel financially secure.
And yet plenty of people who earn well still feel anxious about money. Sometimes the stress is not about how much they make. It is that they do not have a bigger plan for what to do with it. Without that plan, it is easy to spend, spend, spend and still wonder why the money is not moving you toward anything.
There can be shame in that. You may think, “I’m finally making good money. Why do I still feel stressed?” I don’t think you should feel ashamed. Most of us were never taught how to manage money as a skill.
A good income is a tool you can use to build wealth. Building the life you want takes intention, too. You have to think about what your money needs to cover and what you want it to make possible.
A house costs more than the payment
Housing is an easy place to see how this happens. If you buy a home, you have the mortgage, but that is not the whole cost. There may be an HOA, utilities, lawn care, and maintenance. If you move from an apartment to a house that is two or three times the size, your utility bills are probably going to change, too.
I own a condo about ten minutes from downtown Austin. You could walk downtown if you were feeling ambitious. I love the location. It is also an older condo, and there is a lot of maintenance that goes into keeping it up and running. Those costs are part of owning the place, even though they are not the first number you think of.
Rent can look different on paper, too. An apartment may approve you based on gross income, before taxes and retirement contributions come out. Once you look at what actually hits your account, a rent payment that seemed fine can take up a lot of your monthly income. That can make the rest of life feel tight.
Before you take on a big fixed cost, look at all of it. Then ask what you still want room for: a house, a family, a business, or just a little more breathing room.
A big month may need to last
This can be especially hard when income is not steady. Think about someone who works on commission or gets paid by the project. A real estate agent might have a big closing and then go months before the next one. If you do not have a plan for that money, it is hard to know how much is actually available to spend.
I really encourage people with their own businesses or irregular income to understand what their life costs in a month and pay themselves that amount consistently, even if they earn more in one month than another. That way, the bigger months can help cover the slower ones instead of making every month feel like a guessing game.
It helps to know where new money is going before it arrives. Otherwise it can feel like, “Oh, I have money. Let me go spend it.”
What I did when my income doubled
When I left my MBA program and went into consulting, my income was double what it had been before business school. That was huge. It would have been easy to think, “I make this much now. I can do whatever I want.”
I always knew there was some bigger plan for me. I wanted to leave consulting eventually and start my own company, so I saved with that in mind. That money gave me the ability to make the change. It is one reason I think of money as a tool. You can use it to build the life you want, but you have to decide what that life looks like.
I’m a big fan of saving for retirement, and if you can max it out, great. But retirement is not the only thing you might be saving for. You may want a cushion for when something goes wrong, money for your next step, or the option to make work optional one day. If you are making good money, it is worth asking what else you want to build toward.
Sit down with your money
You do not have to commit to a huge plan right now. Sit with your money for a little bit and ask:
What are your recurring monthly commitments, including the costs that are easy to overlook?
What do you want your money to make possible in the next year or two?
After your current expenses and priorities, what is actually available to direct elsewhere?
What is one step that would make your next financial decision feel clearer?
And think about what you want your life to look like. Maybe you want to start a company or have a family. Maybe you are not sure you want to leave your job, but it would be nice to have the option. You do not have to commit to any of that today. Just give yourself time to think about what you might want your money to make possible.
A good income gives you something to work with. The plan is how you start using it for the life you want.
If you want a place to start, take my Money Personality Quiz. It can help you see the patterns you bring to money and give you a place to begin.
About Hannah
Hannah Klein is the founder of Tessera Ventures, where she helps people build financial systems that work in real life. She studied engineering at Stanford, earned her MBA at UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business, and spent several years as a management consultant at BCG. She started Tessera after seeing how many smart, successful people felt overwhelmed by money and thought they were the problem.
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