To think that making money is one thing, but holding onto it is another?

[HardyDuck]

Plenty of people earn well but still struggle financially. Is financial stability more about mindset and habits than just income?

I think you're right. That's why you can have two people earning the same amount of money and one will be broke a few days after payday and the other will have saved.

It's very hard to change habits, though. If you have grown up without much money your instinct might be to hoard your money or to blow it immediately - changing that is incredibly difficult.

Yes of course. But you can't have financial stability without a stable income. It's both.

Income is of course key to financial stability, that’s your primary.

But what you also need really is to keep the mentality of being on a lower income than you are, even when you income goes up. What typically happens is that as a person’s income increases they then upgrade their lives to fit their new salary, so when they were earning 25k they had a mortgage on a 160k house and drove an 8 year old Citroen and had a £16.99 Puregym menbership, a weekend treat was a McDonalds. When they get a promotion to 45k they decide they can afford to upgrade things, so they are now have a brand new BMW on finance and have a mortgage on a 300k house because financially they can afford to, they get a David Lloyd membership instead of Puregym and instead of McDonalds theirs weekend meal is now Nandos or TGI’s, so then despite being are on 45k they are no better off each month because their expenses have just risen in line with their income.

The people who have the financial stability are the people who realise that just because on paper you can afford it, doesn’t mean you should. If there’s nothing wrong with your 160k house then you don’t need a 300k one, if there’s nothing wrong with your car you don’t need a brand new one- or if you do need a new car it doesn’t have to be a £500 a month finance, it can be £150 a month for a car that runs just the same. Just because you have the money to get a Nandos every Friday or a Starbucks every morning before work doesn’t mean you should etc.

If you always just upgrade your life in line with your income increasing then you never really feel any better off.