DJ COMMUNITY

TRICKS TO LIVING LARGE WITHOUT GOING BROKE

August 24, 2015 ‐ By Ann Brown

Shutterstock

Who doesn’t want to live the glamorous life–fab clothes, dining out every night at expensive restaurants, hitting all the exclusive clubs? But unless you’re a multimillionaire or getting a lot of comps and freebies, you can go broke trying to living large.

It’s understandable to make decisions using the philosophy that you only live once or even “I deserve this new bag.” But people craving this type of life when they are short on cash will often rely on credit cards–a major financial no-no. This will only ring up major debt when you charge those Christian Louboutin shoes.

Of course, you think “I can pay off that debt easily, but most likely you will wind up still paying for those shoes five years later. It’s time to live in reality.

So how do you do that? First you need to understand your spending limits and truly stick to a budget. This is what Sabrina Atienza, a recent graduate from UC Berkeley with out-of-state student loans who is paying herself a fraction of market wages as a startup CEO, is doing. Atienza, founder and CEO of software publisherQurious.io Inc., also lives in the most expensive city in the country, within a very expensive district: South of Market (SoMa), San Francisco, CA.

“Living outside my means spells disaster because that means I miss loan payments, my credit score suffers, and I have no funds for emergencies. This is why it’s important that I deliberately cut back on expenses,” Atienza told us.

She cut back on expenses without suffering in lifestyle, though. “I use cash, not card, because I think twice about physically handing over money. I also limit dining out to one-two times per month.” Atienza also found a great way of still dining with friends and socializing without spending a ton of money: “ I host potluck dinners in my apartment’s common areas.”

When it comes to clothes you can stay stylish for less by knowing the right time to buy. “Splurge off-season,” said life improvement coach M.A. Haley, PhD. “You can achieve 70-90 percent discounts at the end of a season. Stick with classics, and nobody will know when items were bought. Also, gently used stores like Plato’s Closet have items not older than one year, at deep discounts.”

While sacrificing now may sound like a buzzkill, it’s important to remember you have a long financial life ahead of you. “If you live outside your means you’ll never be able to save and invest and thereby grow your wealth,” said Laurie Itkin, founder of The Options Lady and author of Every Woman Should Know Her Options: Invest Your Way to Financial Empowerment. “If you live outside your means you are giving up the opportunity to become wealthy through saving and investing and will likely have to work until you die. There will be no comfortable retirement lifestyle in your future.”