Lifestyle creep — where your growing expenses outpace salary increases — can deflate your budget and prevent you from building wealth. To start this episode, Nerds Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner talk about how to determine if you’re succumbing to lifestyle creep and how to be more intentional about your money, while still enjoying the finer things in life.

Then Sean and Liz Weston answer a listener’s three-part question about whether to pay off student loans while they’re paused, what to do with their savings and how to find the best deals when booking travel.

To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. If you like what you hear, please leave a review and tell a friend. We appreciate it.

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Lifestyle Creep, and Booking Cheap Travel