The Upside Down Of Personal Finance: Where Your Money Really Goes

You swear you didn’t spend on anything major this month. No new phone. No impromptu holiday. No designer bag that required financial justification. And yet, when you open your banking app, your balance looks like Will Byers in season one of Stranger Things — missing, gone without a trace and seemingly into the void.

Somehow, between payday and the last week of the month, your money slips into a dim, tangled realm where vine-like receipts stretch for miles, and subscription fees coil trapping you like roots in Vecna’s lair. Time moves differently here, and every careless tap, swipe, or scroll feeds the shadowy creature that slowly drains your wallet. Welcome to the Upside Down of personal finance: A place you don’t remember entering, because nothing you did ever felt reckless enough to count as a mistake. Just a series of perfectly reasonable decisions that somehow led you here.

In Malaysia, the cracks are already all around us, hidden in everyday convenience. A tap here, a scan there and an active gym membership you swear you’ll cancel someday, each one barely noticeable, yet quietly feeding the monster in the shadows. To be fair, spending has never been easier, faster, or quieter. Sometimes a little too quiet. So much so that we don’t even realise our banks have been charged for something. This raises an uncomfortable question: maybe going cashless wasn’t entirely in our best interest after all? Or maybe it’s not a grand capitalist conspiracy. Maybe we just need to stop making excuses and get our finances in order. Maybe.

Either way, something is definitely eating our money and we’re getting to the bottom of it!

The little horrors that add up

The most dangerous spending isn’t the dramatic kind. It’s the “harmless” kind.

• RM7 for a pastry.
• RM12 for boba tea.
• RM15 for snacks at the convenience store because you deserve a treat.
• RM20 for GrabFood delivery because it’s been a long day.

Each purchase feels insignificant on its own. You barely register it. That’s because small transactions don’t trigger loss aversion, which is the psychological mechanism that makes us feel pain when we lose money. This is especially so when the transaction is cashless.  Our brains simply don’t perceive RM10 here or RM15 there as a “loss.” One by one, each transaction is swept into the Upside Down ( like children vanishing into Vecna’s grasp) slowly but surely growing into something much, much bigger.

I mean, just do the math:

RM10 a day becomes RM300 a month.

That’s RM3,600 a year. And that’s just for your daily boba fix.

Suddenly, that “little treat” could have gone toward a rainy-day stash, insurance premiums, investments, or even a downpayment for a car. The Demogorgon doesn’t attack all at once — it feeds slowly, quietly, one micro-transaction at a time.

Lifestyle creep: when your income feels like it’s never enough

Then there’s lifestyle creep. The monster that grows alongside your salary.

You get a raise, and nothing dramatic changes. You don’t move houses or buy a new car. Instead, the upgrades are subtle. Coffee goes from kopitiam to specialty café. Lunch shifts from RM8 mixed rice to RM20 café bowls. Your phone gets upgraded because the iphone 16 became cheaper when the 17 was launched, so technically, (Insert valley girl accent. It’s really important that you read this next part with said accent) you’re literally saving money. Now add wedding ang pau’s, cafe dates with your best friends and those late night pickleball games. Because what can you do? Be a bad friend and not show up for them?

And honestly? You’re not wrong to want these things. You worked hard. You do deserve an upgrade in life and a social life. The problem starts when every increase in income is automatically absorbed by higher spending. When your expenses expand to match your salary, it creates the illusion that you’re never earning enough, no matter how much you make. You’re running up that hill, sprinting as fast as you can, but you’re still trapped in the Upside Down. Every step feels like progress, yet stability ( financial or otherwise) remains just out of reach.

How to kill the Demogorgon draining your money

You don’t need to cut out joy (no pun intended), convenience, or fun entirely. The goal isn’t to turn your life into a ledger of misery. Think of it like hunting the Demogorgon: strategy matters more than brute force. Here’s the 101 on slaying the monster lurking in your wallet.

Pause and delay

Implement a 24-hour rule for non-essential purchases. If you still want that RM400 perfume tomorrow, fine. But give logic a chance to catch up with impulse.

Reduce exposure

Turn off push notifications. Unsubscribe from marketing emails. Mute apps that constantly whisper “limited-time offer” into your brain. Out of sight really does mean out of mind.

Set intentional limits

You’re not going to stop spending on non-essentials and you don’t have to. Just decide how much you’re willing to spend, then stay within that boundary without guilt.

Find low-spend alternatives

Take the MRT instead of Grab when possible. Pack lunch a few days a week. Learn to recreate your favourite snacks at home. These aren’t punishments, they’re pressure valves for your budget.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s awareness.

Stepping out of the Upside Down

Sometimes, when you finally stop and look in the mirror, you realise the enemy isn’t some invisible force around you…it’s you. Your habits. Your impulses. Your comfort-driven spending. All quietly feeding the Demogorgon in your wallet.

But then, like Will in Season 5 (spoilers ahead), you realise something: you can see through the eyes of the Demogorgon. You can sense what it wants, where it’s hiding, and how it moves. And to some extent… you can influence it. Awareness gives you leverage. Each small, intentional choice like delaying a purchase, muting a push notification or setting a budget is like nudging the creature away from you, taking back control.

Once you identify the triggers, control lifestyle creep, and close these tiny financial portals, the Upside Down loses its grip. Your money stops disappearing. Your balance starts making sense. And for the first time in a long while, you’re not wondering where it all went. You’re in control and you’re finally finding your way out.