9 ways to look rich but live cheap
Rise above your measly income and worn-out shoes. You can live the
Simply Fabulous lifestyle and enjoy cushy perks even without being
adopted by the Rockefellers.
By MP Dunleavey
Want to look as if you're living a wealthier lifestyle than you
actually are? Me too! In fact, I come from a long line of frugal
women who obeyed the motto: "Live well, look rich and never let the
world know how little you're really paid." An excellent philosophy,
which can be summed up as "Live cheap, look rich."
Sure, I daydream about having millions to throw around -- and so do
you. (Americans spend about $25 billion each year on lottery tickets
in fruitless pursuit of this dream.) But people who have mastered the
Live Cheap, Look Rich way of life know that it's not about having
more money, it's about getting more out of life for the money you
have.
And looking (and feeling) well-heeled while you do it. "Just because
you don't have a fat wallet means you have to go without life's
pleasures," says Shel Horowitz, author of "The Penny-Pinching
Hedonist" and founder of the FrugalFun.com Web site. Here is a quick
boot camp on how to cultivate a more affluent way of life without
actually spending a lot of money on it.
The art of affluence
One thing masters of the Live Cheap, Look Rich lifestyle will tell
you is that wealth is just as much about your mindset as it is about
your bank account. So learning to live a richer life may require you
to start by thinking differently.
Buy classics.
At first this sounds like an expensive move; classics always cost
more. But for certain purchases, spending more may be a better
investment in the long run. Take cashmere. It's ridiculously
expensive. And yet I rely on my small hoard of cashmere sweaters
because they not only look smashing, but they will last long after
that GAP wool-blend sweater falls apart. Same with cars. "I decided
to buy a five-year-old BMW this year," says Sandy deNicolais, former
fashion and beauty editor of Women's Day. "The payments for a brand-
new Honda were the same. But in five years, that Honda won't be worth
as much as my BMW. The BMW will last longer, it's higher quality,
it's got more style."
Travel creatively.
As I learned at my upscale women's liberal arts college, wealthy
people are always just coming back from somewhere fabulous and far
away. And you can too, with a little ingenuity. By logging onto
Luxury Link, a luxury travel auction site, one friend of mine bought
a five-night stay at swanky Little Dix Bay in the British Virgin
Islands for about $900. No, that didn't include airfare, but she and
her partner didn't spend any more than they would have on a dull
stateside getaway. If you can travel at the last-minute, remaindered
airline seats are sold for cheap on the Smarter Living Web site. Or
you can consider the many options that let you stay somewhere
princely for nothing -- international hosting or home-swapping
services. Some of these networks charge a fee to join, but it's
usually reasonable. Horowitz says that he and his wife and daughter
stayed for 12 nights in Wales last year and paid a total of $50 for
lodging, thanks to the generosity of a SERVAS host. (For more on home
swapping, see "Home swaps: The ticket for vacation savings.")
Vicarious wealth by volunteering. Major charities always need
volunteers, and they often hold a yearly bash where you can meet and
mingle with the rich and famous. Or you can volunteer at a local
theater or arts organization and gain access to pricey cultural
events without paying a dime. Black-tie events are not only for those
who can afford the $500 door ticket. It's for those who hold the
doors, too. Horowitz ushers at a local music venue, and in the last
few years has attended concerts by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Chuck
Berry. "Those tickets would have cost me $500 to $600 out of pocket."
Giving the appearance of wealth.
It's far easier to acquire the kind of manners and good breeding that
come along with a wealthy upbringing than it is to go back and change
the way you were raised. Some pointers from Jill Spiegel, author
of "Flirting for Success: The Art of Building Rapport."
+Always be well-groomed. Pay attention to your hair, nails and shoes.
+Be gracious. To everyone. Speak calmly and kindly, says Spiegel, the
great-great granddaughter of catalog merchant Joseph Spiegel. "Rich
people are too well-bred to be rude."
+Don't discuss money. People with money don't need to mention what
things cost, nor do they appear to care.
Purge the poverty from your life. Hard-core Feng Shui believers will
tell you that a plant in a certain place and a mirror in another will
bring you lifelong prosperity. (I know because I have "The Feng Shui
of Wealth" at home.) All I know is that cleaning out the clutter in
your life, moving the furniture so that it feels more harmonious, not
only feels good, it forces you to admit that the end table is broken
and the lamp shade needs replacing and yes, it's time to buy a new
refrigerator. In other words, pay attention to all the ways that
poverty has crept into your home -- and make a point of fixing or
upgrading each one. Living a life of affluence doesn't mean buying
hand-burnished leather couches from Uzbekistan. It means taking the
stains out of your carpet, oiling the squeaky door. Living in
comfort, ease and beauty. That may not cost much more than elbow
grease.
Never pay retail. Given how many discount stores and Web sites there
are, it's ridiculous to pay full price for anything. You can dress
like Vogue editor Anna Wintour for a fraction of what she pays, just
by shopping at Target, which features super-cheap but trendy duds by
high fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.
Other ways to enrich your wardrobe: shop at consignment
(aka "secondhand") stores, but only in tony areas. Christine Sparta,
a free-lance writer in New Jersey, bought a Christian Dior suit at
just such a place for $58. No, I didn't forget a zero.
Learn to work the Web. "If I see a pair of designer shoes at
Bloomingdales," says deNicolais, "I know I can find the same exact
pair for $50 or $60 less at SHOEbuy.com." I like to go straight to
the "clearance" section of my favorite retailers online -- from L.L.
Bean to Victoria's Secret to Crate & Barrel. I've gotten amazing
deals.
And learn to time your purchases. National retail chains like Banana
Republic, Ann Taylor and others have a merchandise cycle of about 6
to 8 weeks. After about four weeks of being out on the floor, the
chain then rotates full-price items to discounted tables. Keep your
eye on the cycle at your favorite stores so that you're always buying
at a discount.
Learn to hobnob. Be part of the society set without a trust fund.
Look up charitable events in your area. (Usually they're listed in
the local paper, and charities often post their calendars online.)
And go schmooze -- I mean, hobnob. Want to attend a benefit for the
Lauri Strauss Leukemia Foundation, featuring performances by Liza
Minelli and the New York Pops at schmancy Carnegie Hall? Tickets
start at $15.
Make a bid for luxury items. Even upscale auction houses like
Christie's or Sotheby's may offer good deals on unique items for your
home, and most are free and open to the public for previewing
merchandise. You'll want to skip the Italian Renaissance footstools.
But sometimes a group of worthwhile items from an estate sale will be
sold as a lot, with bids starting as low as $700, says Michel Witmer,
an art historian and lecturer in New York. "Auction houses are a
treasure trove." Of course, most treasure requires some digging, and
arcade sales -- lower-priced auctions at big houses -- are a great
place to start if you want furnishings with the air of old money.
Get married, but don't have kids. According to Andrew Oswald, an
economist at the University of Warwick in England and something of an
expert on the intersection of money and happiness, getting married
adds a happiness factor that's equivalent to having $100,000 added to
your household income. This is not true of having children, Oswald
says. His surveys have found that adding kids to your life (or not
having them at all) didn't seem to change people's happiness one way
or the other. Which is good. Kids are expensive, and since most rich
people just send theirs away to boarding school anyway, you could
argue that the best thing for your Live Cheap, Look Rich lifestyle is
not to have the little monsters in the first place.
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