Sola Adesakin 
Every December, many people look at their spending for the year and suddenly realize something: they spent far more on lifestyle — clothes, outings, gadgets, food, soft life than they ever invested in the one thing that actually determines their future: themselves. It’s a pattern that quietly keeps people stuck.
In my opinion, your personal development budget should far exceed what you spend on lifestyle needs and wants. Not because lifestyle is wrong, we all deserve comfort, beauty, enjoyment, but because lifestyle does not multiply. Personal development does. Lifestyle spends. Development builds.
If you give development a chance, the “you” you become from intentional growth will attract more than enough resources to fuel any lifestyle you desire; sustainably, confidently, and without pressure. But this requires time, patience, and a shift in mindset.
The problem is simple:
Many people are trying to “look” wealthy before they actually become wealthy. They invest in appearance, not capacity. They fuel consumption, not competence. They pay for comfort, not clarity. And while all of that feels good in the moment, it doesn’t change anything long-term.
The right books, courses, mentors, communities, and experiences shape your thinking, sharpen your decision-making, and expand your earning potential. Growth is the seed; lifestyle is the fruit. Too many people are trying to water the fruit.
Let’s break it down with a simple question:
Which version of you has a higher earning capacity, the one who spent the year buying lifestyle items or the one who spent the year growing skills, mindset, networks, and knowledge? It’s never the lifestyle version. Growth always wins.
Here are a few truths most people learn too late:
Your income rarely grows beyond your mindset.
If your thinking is limited, your earning power will be limited. Personal development stretches your vision so you can stretch your income.
You are paid in proportion to the problems you can solve.
Bigger value? Bigger earning. Books, courses, mentorship, and training sharpen your ability to solve problems at scale.
Lifestyle has no compound interest. Development does.
One training today can change the next 10 years of your financial story. One mindset shift can cut years of struggle. One mentor can accelerate your growth faster than any gadget ever will. The market rewards competence, not consumption.
Nobody pays you more because of your designer shoes. They pay you more because you know more, can do more, and can deliver more.
If you don’t invest in yourself, you eventually pay for it.
Sometimes in lost opportunities.
Sometimes in stagnation.
Sometimes in settling for less.
Growth is expensive, but ignorance is costlier.
Here’s the good news:
You don’t need millions to start investing in yourself. You only need a commitment to allocate more to your growth than to your comfort. The books you’ve been postponing, the online course you’ve been eyeing, the mentor you want to work with, the workshops you admire from afar, begin to prioritise them.
Even if your lifestyle budget must reduce for a season, do it. Your future self will thank you, loudly.
Because the version of you that emerges from consistent personal development becomes magnetic: to opportunities, to income, to quality relationships, to breakthrough ideas, and yes, to wealth. Your lifestyle should be funded by your growth, not competing with it. Give it time. Water the seed. The fruit will come.
Sola Adesakin is a highly respected wealth coach and chartered accountant with over two decades of transformative impact in the finance industry. As the visionary founder of Smart Stewards Financial Advisory Limited and Smart Stewards Advisory LLC, she has revolutionized the financial wellbeing of countless individuals and businesses across 40 countries. Her methodical approach to ‘make-manage-multiply’ money principles has elevated many from financial stress to prosperity, and mediocrity to exceptional achievement.