QT002 What would really happen if you got a 20% pay rise tomorrow?

Would your savings rate go up…Or would your lifestyle quietly rise to meet it?

In this Quick Take episode of Life After Enough, Nic breaks down the hidden cost of lifestyle creep and why it’s one of the biggest reasons people stay stuck chasing financial independence longer than they need to.

Lifestyle creep doesn’t look reckless. But every permanent upgrade actually raises the price of your freedom.

In this Quick Take, we explore:

• What lifestyle creep actually is and why it’s so easy to miss
• How spending just $1,000 more per year adds $25,000 to your FIRE number
• Why lifestyle creep turns into time creep
• How “deserved” upgrades become invisible baseline costs
• The psychology behind lifestyle inflation: exhaustion, autopilot, status
• Why FIRE plans fail when spending drifts without intention

Practical takeaways:

• How to freeze fixed costs while income grows
• Why automating salary increases is one of the fastest ways to buy freedom
• How to run an “enough audit” using intentional spending
• One grounding question that reveals bad trade-offs:

  Would I trade more time at work for this?

If you want to learn more about the math underpinning this:

This episode builds directly on Episode 3 — FIRE 101: Freedom, Myths & Math, where we break down how your FIRE number works, why spending matters more than income, and how lifestyle choices quietly add years to your timeline.

The core idea is that lifestyle creep feels like progress but it’s often just disguised delay. Choosing enough over more isn’t about deprivation. It’s about buying back time, flexibility, and peace.

🎙️ Quick Takes are short, reflective episodes designed to interrupt autopilot and help you think differently about money, work, and the life you’re building after enough.

If this episode resonated, follow Life After Enough and share it with someone quietly paying the cost of more.

#004 I hit my original FIRE number in 2024 - the one I’d been chasing for years - and the spreadsheet basically said: congratulations, you’re free!

But I didn’t feel free. Instead I felt a kind of panic.

Because almost immediately my brain went: What if it’s not enough? What if the future is more expensive? What if something unexpected happens?

That’s when it clicked: financial enough isn’t just a number.

It’s a relationship. A skill. A mindset. And most of us never learn how to build it.

In this episode, we go deeper than the spreadsheets and talk about what “enough” actually looks like in real life. Its especially relevant if you’re the kind of person who keeps moving the goalposts, adding “one more year,” and calling it responsibility.

We cover:

• Why hitting your FIRE number doesn’t always feel euphoric (and why that’s normal)
• The real reason “one more year” is so seductive and what it’s actually costing you
• How lifestyle creep quietly rewrites your definition of enough without you noticing
• Sequence of returns risk (and practical ways to build resilience: buffers, diversification, dynamic withdrawals)
• How to build emotional readiness alongside financial readiness, so the numbers can actually land
• A practical framework to define your floor and ceiling (stable vs “rich life”) and find your real enough in between
• Why your FIRE number should evolve as you do, and explore why changing it isn’t failure, it’s growth
• A simple reality check to assess whether you’re financially and emotionally ready for freedom

If you’ve ever thought, “I should feel safe by now… so why don’t I?” then this episode is for you.

The goal isn’t to chase safety forever. It’s to recognise when you already have it, and then learn how to live from there.

🎧 Follow Life After Enough for the next episodes as we keep building the full picture: money, meaning, identity, and what happens after the number.

#003 What if retirement wasn’t something that happened at 65? What if financial independence wasn’t about escaping work, but about reclaiming choice?

In this episode, I break down the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement from the ground up where it came from, how the maths actually works, and why it’s about far more than money.

This isn’t a hype piece or a promise of beachside cocktails at 40. Rather, it’s a grounded look at FIRE as a framework for designing freedom on your own terms.

We cover:

• How I first discovered FIRE during Singapore’s COVID lockdown and why it totally changed my life
• The simple maths behind early retirement (and why savings rate matters more than income)
• The 4% rule, the Trinity Study, and how to calculate your own “Enough” number
• The different flavours of FIRE: Lean, Fat, Coast, and Barista - and who each one suits
• Common myths about FIRE (it’s only for the wealthy, it means never working again, it requires extreme frugality)
• Why the FIRE movement is evolving massively from pure financial optimisation toward purpose, identity, and alignment

At its core, FIRE isn’t about quitting work as fast as possible. It’s about building enough financial stability that work becomes optional and life becomes something you actively design, not just endure.

This episode lays the foundation for everything that follows on Life After Enough - from emotional wellbeing, to identity, to what actually happens once the number is reached.

• Get Rich Slowly: the “stages of financial independence” framework
• Mr. Money Mustache: he Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
• ChooseFI: early FIRE inspiration and community
• Trinity Study: the Trinity Study on safe withdrawal rates
• A Richer Retirement: updated research by Bill Bengen (who is the originator of the 4% rule) on withdrawal strategies
• Ramit Sethi: “Rich Life” philosophy on spending with intention

• FIRE is about options, not extreme early retirement
• Your savings rate matters more than your salary
• There’s no single “right” version of FIRE alignment matters more than labels
• Financial independence is the foundation not the finish line