I have observed that if you increase your needs, the new 'increased need state' becomes your new norm after a while. For example, if you didn't have car before but then you purchase it, use it regularly and then when you don't have it anymore — you'll miss your car, you'll feel like you can't live without it even though you managed to live without it before.
Do you agree with this observation? Would you agree that it's better to not increase your needs in first place?
In life, you don't remain the same; you grow, and by the time you grow past where you used to be, it will be a stage where you won't find it comfortable to come back. It doesn't even make sense to remain the same in life, let alone talk about going back to a previous stage. If we look at this in terms of financial state, it is very easy to manage the amount of money you have now, but if more money comes in, it means the demands increase. If one fails to improve their financial life and falls back to the financial state where they used to be, it typically seems difficult because there are already more demands.
At first glance, the situation is closely related to how a person maintains their wealth. Those who have risen in status, whether in terms of living standards or otherwise, will strive to maintain what they already have. No one is comfortable or ready to fall back into their previous situation, even though unexpected things always happen in life. I think anyone who already owns an asset, such as a car, certainly has wise financial management in spending and maintaining their money.
On the other hand, I think this is also closely related to a sense of acceptance of any situation. We should always be grateful for what we have now, but remain prepared to face various challenges, including the loss of everything we have. I believe that people who were previously poor, for example, when they become rich and then fall back into poverty, will easily recover because they have a never give up mentality.