Living a High Society Lifestyle on a Budget
The combination of a high society lifestyle and a budget might sound impossible, but it’s not. You don’t have to be rich to live well. You can actually live much more comfortably if you’re frugal. That way you have money available to spend on the things you want without breaking the bank. When you just spend without any kind of budgeting, you waste a lot of money that you could have used for things that you really like and that you really want to do. Don’t assume that all of your high society friends really have a lot of money, either. They might just have learned the secret to budgeting well.
When you see them out shopping, are you sure that they aren’t using a prepaid credit card so they don’t overspend? Of course, you’re not. It’s not something that shows. The same is true of people who spend money while they’re out but don’t spend it at home. That doesn’t mean that they don’t live in a nice place, but they might do things a bit differently. They may have only a cell phone and no landline. They may also not have cable TV or Internet. What’s the point of having those things if you’re not home to use them? If you’re always out after work, living it up, you can do without cable and Internet at your house.
As you settle into the high society lifestyle, you’ll find that there are little tricks and tips you can use in order to live quite well and not actually spend that much money. You don’t have to make a production out of it. Just quietly be frugal but fun, and no one will likely notice that you’re not spending as much as you could be. Your friends are probably doing the same things with their budgets, as well.
Managing is a Pain to do Yourself
- Image via Wikipedia
If you have been thinking about taking on a rental property or two, you no doubt have an idea about all of the horror stories. People will give you sob stories to try to get in (or get in without having to pay a security deposit), and then do serious damage to your property. They will set a fire in the living room because they do not want to pay the gas bill, or they will decide they no longer want to have a wall “over there,” and just take a sledge hammer to it. Or they will decide that they want to paint satanic murals all over the walls, and throw their used condoms in the corner, and let their dog do its business wherever it pleases.
It’s almost enough to make you just want to put your money in a mutual fund and say to heck with it. But don’t let the horror stories get you discouraged.
There are professionals who are trained to handle situations of this nature. While a lot of people will tell you that property management is just “a waste of money,” those are people who see their rental properties as a job that they have to do themselves. But these same people will often hire somebody to put on a new roof, or to install new electrical systems (known in the business as “stuff”). Everybody chooses to outsource something, at some point. If we didn’t, the situation would quickly turn insane, and insanely difficult.
While a good property manager is going to charge you a percentage of the rents, this is a percentage that buys you a very valuable commodity – free time. You do not have to run the backgrounds of your potential tenants, nor do you have to schedule interviews with them. In fact, you don’t even have to meet them at all.