Or think about Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City and all her $400 shoes. It’s hard to imagine she went from buying shoes at Payless one day to buying Manolos and Jimmy Choos the next. Most likely, she gradually worked her way up the price ladder, with each step not feeling like a significant enough difference to warrant concern. It’s this invisible slippery slope that makes lifestyle inflation the single biggest threat to early retirement, a fact backed up by research.
