Maybe you’ve been in this situation before: you feel like you deserve a lifestyle upgrade, either because you are overworked or you just need some luxury in your life, but the only issue is your income isn’t aligned with those aspirations. Conventional wisdom would say that you need to save up – demarcate certain luxury goals, like a vacation, new vehicle or fancy dinners, and start putting money toward them.
The only problem there is that you want to live in luxury now, not later when you have the money. Thankfully, there are a few easy ways to add a little luxury in your life without emptying your wallet. Consider these your hacks for living like a rich person while you earn a normal wage.
Lease Your Luxury Car
You may not be able to buy a Benz or a Bentley, but you may be able to lease one, especially if it’s used. Because leases only make you pay monthly for the cost of depreciation during the lease term, and because a car does a significant amount of its depreciating in the first couple years, you can find used luxury cars at industry-leading lease prices for low monthly payments.
Learn to Cook
When eating out at fancy restaurants, the vast majority of what you pay for is the service of the wait staff and the time and expertise of the chef. But if you learn to cook like a chef, you can eat restaurant-quality food, with fantastic ingredients, every night of the week. You’re probably saying, ‘that sounds too hard’, and no one can fault you for being sceptical, but there is a wealth of resources online – through YouTube tutorials, recipe and technique blogs and forums – that can help you fast track becoming a better cook.
Consider Product Testing
Get paid to get things. That sounds way too good to be true, but it is the exact job description of an at-home product tester. Through a product testing agency, you are given a number of different products to test that correspond to your demographic – could be electronics, could be games, could be beauty products. You use the products, review them, photograph them, and then (usually) you get to keep them. Plus, it pays a competitive rate and you can do it while you’re doing your other job. It really is a good hack for getting free stuff.
Join a Mistake Fare Finder
Need a vacation, but can’t justify spending an exorbitant amount on international flight? Luckily, every so often, airlines will post what is called a “mistake fare” – essentially, a fare they post in error that is far cheaper than the normal price. For instance, New York to Shanghai might be $1300 normally, but reduced to only $700. These fares are notoriously hard to find in the wild, but there are “mistake fare finders” that use computer programs to comb for low prices. You can sign up for mistake fare finders online, either through an email newsletter or by joining a Facebook group.
Who says you need to spend lavishly to live luxuriously? With a few clever hacks, you can live like a king on the pay of a pauper.