Briefcase Study: Is Status-Chasing Affecting Your Retirement?

Have you ever stopped to reflect on how much status influences your decisions?

In professional life, it’s easy to see – titles like supervisor, director, or CEO make it clear who sits where in the hierarchy. But status doesn’t just live in the office. It quietly shapes the cars we drive, the neighborhoods we choose, the vacations we take, and the gadgets we chase.

While some of these decisions may reflect our genuine preferences, others are guided by a subconscious pursuit of status, often without our full awareness. And that’s where financial planning becomes more than just a spreadsheet or investment portfolio. It becomes a mirror. A filter. Even a weapon in the battle to live a life of purpose, rather than one built on someone else’s definition of success.

Imagine for a moment, a life of ‘enough’.

Picture, if you will, a world where people strive to acquire only what they need to survive and thrive…and then stop. No more grasping for the latest luxury SUV or upgraded phone model. No more comparing vacation photos or closet sizes. In this utopian world of ‘enough’, contentment would settle in once basic needs were met, freeing up time and energy for the deeper joys of life: relationships, creativity, community.

Of course, we don’t live in that world.

Instead, we live in a culture where accumulation is often mistaken for accomplishment. And to be clear, I’m not here to tell you to give up life’s comforts or joys. I love good food, well-made things, and memorable experiences as much as anyone. But if those pursuits start to crowd out our real goals – if we’re climbing ladders we don’t want to be on – it’s time to pause and ask: Is this really what I want?

This is where a financial life plan comes in. It’s not just a retirement plan or investment strategy, but a values-based blueprint for your money and your life. A financial life plan helps you push past the noise, the marketing, and the pressure, and return to what really matters.

What does it look like in practice?

Start by tracking your income and expenses down to the penny. You’ll begin to see where your money flows and what it silently says about your priorities. Then, introduce a new habit: with every expense, ask a simple but powerful question drawn from the classic book Your Money or Your Life:

How might this expense change if I no longer needed to work for a living?

It’s a humbling and clarifying exercise. Would you still lease the luxury vehicle if you knew that driving something more modest could allow you to retire five years sooner? Would that weekly splurge still be worth it if it delayed the moment you could leave your job and pursue something more meaningful?

These aren’t guilt-inducing questions, they’re liberating ones. They give you the freedom to align your spending with your values, not just your impulses or what culture tells you should matter.

Begin With the End in Mind

Stephen Covey, in the classic, best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, reminds us to begin with the end in mind. What’s the end you’re aiming for? A secure, meaningful retirement? A life of contribution, not just consumption? A legacy of clarity and purpose?

The pursuit of status isn’t always a bad thing – retiring early, for instance, can be its own status symbol. But the difference lies in who chooses the goal. Are you climbing your own mountain or someone else’s?

It’s not an overstatement to say this is a daily battle. There’s a multi-billion dollar industry working hard to define success for you. The only way to push back is to define it for yourself, and then build a financial life that supports that vision.

You don’t need to swear off joy or luxury to live intentionally. But you do need to pause long enough to check if your money habits are aligned with your actual goals – not the ones handed to you through social pressure or status chasing.

This is the fight worth fighting: the one where you reclaim your time, your energy, and your resources in service of a life that’s authentically yours.

Because in the end, status fades. But clarity? Purpose? Those are the real investments that pay dividends for life.