Last year was the best year of his career. He's 38, runs projects for a commercial HVAC outfit, and got bumped to senior with a $15,000 raise.

He didn't blow it. No boat, no Vegas.

He traded the old Tahoe for a newer one. Put his daughter in travel softball. Stopped packing lunch. Started saying yes to the steakhouse instead of the grill.

Twelve months later he's got the same balance in checking he had before the raise, and a bigger payment on everything.

Not one bad decision in the bunch. That's what makes it dangerous.

There's a line in The Richest Man in Babylon about this exact thing: what a man calls his necessary expenses will always grow to match his income, unless he fights it.

Nobody fights a raise. That's why it disappears.

You get more and call it a win. Then it's gone and you call it normal.