Hey Pookie,
Everybody seems to think more money will fix their problems.
“If I just made another $10K a year, everything would be fine.”
“If I could land that raise, I’d finally breathe easy.”
“If I had six figures, I’d never worry again.”
Yeah...
I’ve seen people making $30K who are broke.
I’ve seen people making $100K who are broke.
Hell, I’ve seen people making $250K who still live paycheck to paycheck.
It’s not about income.
It’s about what you do with it.
Here’s what typically happens when people get a raise.
They upgrade their apartment.
They lease a nicer car.
They start eating out more.
They tack on another streaming service.
All they did was raise their expenses to match their new paycheck.
That’s called lifestyle creep.
And it’s why people stay broke no matter how much they make.
Without a system, more money just means bigger bills.
You don’t have a money problem.
You have a system problem.
Think about it.
If you can’t manage $3,000 a month, what makes you think you can handle $6,000?
If you’re drowning at $50K, $100K won’t save you.
You’ll just buy prettier anchors.
It’s why you hear about lottery winners who end up broke a few years later.
And it’s why the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle doesn’t care how many zeroes are on your W-2.
Without control, you’ll always feel behind.
Most people buy into these two lies:
- “I’ll start saving once I make more.”
No, you won’t. Because life will always find ways to spend it.
- “Debt will be easier to pay off once I get a raise.”
Wrong again. If you couldn’t kill it before, you’ll just keep swiping your card for “little extras” that eat up your raise.
Raises don’t fix behavior.
Systems do.
The only way off the hamster wheel is to control the money you have today..
That means:
- A budget that gives every dollar a job.
- Savings that happen automatically, not “if there’s anything left.”
- A debt plan that attacks balances in order, not just minimum payments forever.
- A system you can repeat month after month, no matter your paycheck.
When you have that, a raise actually does help.
Because instead of inflating your lifestyle, you use the extra money to accelerate your plan.
That’s how people break free.
I worked with someone once who was making around $90K.
Decent money, right? But he was living paycheck to paycheck, buried in credit cards, stressed to hell.
When he got promoted, he thought life would get easier.
Six months later, he was still broke — just in a nicer apartment with a newer car.
Once we built him a system, everything flipped.
He started paying off debt.
He built savings.
And guess what?
His next raise actually made him wealthier instead of just busier.
That’s the difference.
So let me be clear: making more money is great…
But if you don’t have control, it won’t change a damn thing.
You don’t need to wait for your boss to hand you freedom.
You need to build it yourself.
And if that’s something you’re interested in, I’ve got something coming next week that makes it easy as hell.
Because more money won’t fix bad habits.
But a good system will fix everything.
Taquitos,
Caleb “System Stan” Hammer
