Is this lifestyle inflation? Or just reaping the rewards?
I know this might sound like a flex, but we are genuinely curious on people's opinions here. Honest advice will be appreciated, even harsh ones. Maybe we are just seeking validation, idk.
TL;DR From saving for years, my wife and I are now spending a lot on "stuff" and we are worried whether we are doing something wrong?
Here's the context - we are a married couple (28f, 30m) earning around 400k monthly (net of tax) as freelancers and part-time entrepreneurs - around 9 years ago when we first met, we were barely above minimum wage, around 30k combined net income - we both come from low-middle class families that live paycheck to paycheck - because of this, we are both very frugal and particular with our budgets. We saved every peso we can (quick story, we used to walk 3-4 kms on average per day to save on transportation and only eat at the cheapest places we can find) - no vices, addictions, or luho - we track all our income and spending with our personal tracker. We know exactly where every cent of our money goes. - zero debt, aside from our credit cards which we pay in full on time always
However, recently, we noticed a change in our spending. It started around last year March when we landed our biggest client which provided us with a more stable retainer (before this, we were already earning 6 digits monthly as a unit, but inflow is a little volatile).
From the usual 30k-40k of monthly spending (combined, including what we share to our respective families), this doubled then almost tripled now. Our current 3-month average is around 90k-100k per month.
This might not seem like a very high amount for a couple, but here's the thing... we don't have kids yet, pay zero rent, and live in a city where median monthly income is around 15-20k. Cost of living is low. So 90k spending per month in our area is already considered at the top of the 1%.
Luckily, since we track everything, we know where this increase is coming from - we started shopping a lot for things that we only wished we had before (branded shoes, clothes, little luxuries, house items, gadgets, etc) - we also started eating out a lot and going on dates. This is not new to us but lately we started eating at premium places, and eat what we crave and where we want to - lastly, travelling. Travelling is our biggest expenditure by far, and we consider this now as our luho. We used to travel at least once a year as our way of rewarding ourselves. Now, since both of us have flexible scheds, we travel almost monthly, not just locally but to international destinations (for example, this month we will be going to 2 different countries a week apart. We booked almost spontaneously, so tickets are pricier than expected)
Now 90k-100k gastos per month still leaves us with around 250-300k extra, but all this liquidity goes to nonliquid assets. We bought our first car, purchased our first lot at a premium subdivision, had our house contructed, bought jewelries --- all in CASH.
So in essence, our liquidity has not increased over the past 12 months.
We still have around 4M in savings and emergency fund, of which 75% are invested in UITFs, MP2 and crypto. We also have our personal insurance coverages.
But this doesnt change the fact that we went from being savers to spenders. We are honestly worried when we see the numbers and see how much we spend on things that we don't usually spend on before.
We still believe in "delayed gratification". But as the title goes, are we doing something wrong or are we just overreacting? Is there something we have to improve?