These former six-figure earners got trapped in jobs because of luxury ‘lifestyle creep’—they sacrificed it all and went in search of financial freedom

• These high earners rethought their careers as "lifestyle creep"—where spending rises with income—left them under financial pressure despite impressive paychecks, especially in the face of inflation and social pressure. Sources told Fortune they walked away from lucrative careers to pursue more meaningful, lower-paying paths that prioritize fulfillment, health, and personal values over material success.

Everyone remembers their first paycheck. Whether it's cash-in-hand for a paper round or a significant slip, few people forget the world of potential that opens up once you start earning.

Then people get older and their earnings potential and financial priorities shift: They find themselves with a pet, a mortgage, car payments, a child. Maybe they get promoted: They buy a bigger house, a newer car, holidays for the family are put on a credit card.

Suddenly, a salary that once would have made them feel rich barely scratches the surface.

This is 'lifestyle creep:' When a person's spending ties them into an income bracket.

In a tight housing market, relatively higher interest rate environment and tariff-induced inflation increases on the horizon, even those on the upper end of the income scale are being backed into a corner by their outgoings.

Sources told Fortune why they gave up their high-end homes, C-suite titles, and generous pay packages for careers that truly fulfilled them. But in a world of keeping up with every Jones on social media, it's only getting easier to fall into the same trap.

Money vs meaning

As the former CEO of a New York City-based investment firm, Neal Shah begrudgingly collected the hallmarks of success: The right watch, the correct suit, the $1,000 shoes.

Moving up the ranks from an investment analyst, to hedge fund partner by 27, to leading his own organisation with $20 million in assets under management [AUM] by 31, Shah saw his income soar accordingly.

"At some point in my late 20s I wanted a different life ... but every year it kept getting deferred—it was like golden handcuffs," Shah recalled. "I don't really care for fancy things, but by being in these careers, you're sometimes forced to do things.

"Early in investment banking, I learned the type of suit you wear and the type of tie [matters]—like I was good at my job, but all my bosses told me: 'You need to buy this and dress like this.'

"It's just a perception thing. All the community wears Ferragamo shoes, even though it gave me heartburn to spend that kind of money."

But when Shah's wife was diagnosed with cancer, the decision to leave the finance world could no longer wait.

Crestfallen with the care service available for his wife while he attempted to continue working, Shah became a caregiver full time and the couple moved home to North Carolina—where they encountered other families who had found the same.

In 2021, Shah launched CareYaya Health, which connects universities and their medical students with families in need of support. Now, with more than 30 universities, such as Duke, Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkley, verifying 28,000 students on the platform, Shah is charging no fees to connect caregivers to families and is not drawing a salary from the business.

"I'm very pleased with my life. Financially, things might have looked different ... and I'd have had a fancy life, but that isn't what drives me, so to some degree it would have been more meaningless," Shah added.

"There's a fulfillment aspect beyond money, which is that all these families that are struggling with care, you're helping. You're motivating these young people to do positive things in their community—that has tremendous value that you can't measure."

It's only getting worse in 2025

Judi Leahy, vice president of Citi's personal wealth management unit, said that even clients with "significant means" will turn to their wealth advisors for help cutting lifestyle costs in 2025.

"People do get caught up in the process of: You have money, but you're not forward thinking," Leahy told Fortune. "My mantra is when in doubt, do without.

"You can't sacrifice all the time ... if you are making money and you have that discretionary income then it's ok to go out and do something for yourself, but it shouldn't be part of your routine spending."

Lifestyle creep is only becoming more of a problem because of social media, easier access to goods and services and societal pressure, added Leahy, adding the problem is compounded in 2025 because of inflation.

"The biggest indication of that is just going grocery shopping," Leahy said. "When you think about your basic needs and your wants, when you go to the grocery store, it's very easy to splurge on things that you don't need really, and the prices have just really gotten out of whack.

"That's one place where you can be completely trapped because you're used to buying certain things and those prices have gone exponentially higher and you're still in the same game."

Take even the most basic purchase of a dozen large eggs. According to the St Louis Fed, the cost of eggs continues to spike, sitting at more than $6 in March 2025 compared to $2.99 a year prior.

Anyone worried about their spending vs. their necessary income needs to compile a brutally honest financial plan, Leahy added. "Use the different scenarios: If you retire at 60, if you retire at 65, if you take Social Security, if we sell the main house and buy a smaller house—what does that look like?"

"All of that should get factored in, and you have a very sobering moment to say 'I can make it' or 'Oh my god, you better go get a second job.' Once you have everything in black and white, things become more real."

Stepping away from it all

Unlike many in his family, Gene Cabalerro didn't grow up with an entrepreneurial itch, so he spent a happy decade in Nashville working at Dell Technologies.

His days consisted of hard work, enjoying his $3,000-a-month apartment in the best building in town, regular sports tickets at the nearby Nissan stadium, and weekends partying.

On a Friday afternoon a few years ago, looking out over commercial parking lots around his office, Cabalerro considered his lifestyle creep for the first time. He was counting the speedboats parked in the nearby lots, towed to work ahead of a weekend on the water.

"It was a fun place to live, a great environment, and you're surrounded by wonderful people that are also doing well. You just wanna keep up with them and keep striving," Cabalerro recounted.

But then an opportunity to invest in and lead GreenPal—an on-demand lawn care platform—was offered and the entrepreneurial itch kicked in.

"I'm now living in my sister's spare bedroom, and last year I stayed 196 nights in Marriotts across the world," Cabalerro said. "I'm in Peru right now, and I've already got six trips planned this year. Life is great, it just takes those shitty few first years."

The story is the same for Christopher Kaufman, who left behind his $1.5 million California home, healthy 401k, and high-end hotel stays to complete a doctorate and lecture at universities.

Kaufman went in search of more independence than his six-figure role in tech afforded him, but the decision to leave his job was made all the more complex by the medical insurance it provided him and his wife, who suffers with autoimmune issues.

"There were moments of regret," he recalls, particularly when the couple were searching for insurance cover.

Now living in the Coachella Valley, Kaufman added: "Tears were shed, going: How much do we burn into our retirement? Luckily, we didn't have to do that, but we got right up to the edge of saying: 'We could burn down what we built up' and that was not part of the plan.

"From teaching, I'm now probably earning between 5% and 10% of what I was. I'm ten times happier, but I'm making ten times less money."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com