I hope this is okay to post here, please let me know if it's not.
So, in a little less than two weeks I will be starting a job that will increase my salary from $26k to 75k. I'm terrified of lifestyle inflation.
Some background: I've worked at my current job for the past 4 years and am able to live independently on my current salary, but I have very little financial literacy as I've never been able to save much. I've been extremely lucky and now my income is going to almost triple. I'm 26 and I expect to work this job that I am about to start until I'm 63 and can retire with full pension (yes, it's government work).
I'm want to try to live the first year at this new job on close to my current budget (maybe pretend I make 30k) so that I can see how much extra money I'll actually be making and decide how much I can split off into retirement savings, saving for a new car, saving for a house, and saving for a trip to Scotland (life-long dream).
The problem is: I haven't even started this new job yet and I'm stressed about the amount of money I'll be making. Right now I have zero temptation to buy stuff or spend money because I literally can not afford anything. That won't be the case for much longer. I'm already having thoughts about how my car has rust, 180,000 miles, and only gets 19mpg, so maybe I should get a new car? But then I immediately have to shut down those thoughts because I know that would not be a smart financial decision to get a car right away. And this happens with much smaller things too. Stuff like, "Hey, I can probably afford a PS4" and "I can buy the fancy cheese at the grocery" and "I can afford to take a few days and go to Boston to visit my friend". I know these things aren't necessarily bad things to spend money on. You have to live life, etc.
My problem is I am totally the sort of person who will start buying things and not stop and suddenly I'm living paycheck to paycheck on a 75k salary (something I luckily don't do on a 26K salary). So I'm stressed out about the thought of not being responsible enough for this new salary. And the stress has only been getting worse for the last week. And I don't know what to do. So please, any and all advice is appreciated.
EDIT: Formatting
Submitted September 27, 2017 at 04:59PM by NotUsedToThisStress http://ift.tt/2fSVTEX
