How To Look Like Wealthy Without Borrowing Up To Your Eyeballs

March 13th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under • by admin

A lot of us are way too concerned about making ourselves look good to our friends. We want to have a nice car, a pretty house, stylish clothes, and the like. All of that stuff gets really expensive, and a lot of people are so concerned with looking good that they borrow money to make it look like they are much wealthier than they actually are. They buy expensive homes they can’t afford with ridiculous mortgages and finance new cars over five years. Don’t worry, there are ways that you can look pretty wealthy without going in huge amounts of debt to do so.

Buy a Newer Used Car – Don’t buy a brand new car, they lose half of their value within the first two years. Buy a vehicle that’s anywhere from 2-5 years old, and it’ll still look nice but you won’t take nearly the hit that you would with a new car.

Shop Consignment – Don’t go to expensive retail stores to buy your clothes, instead go to consignment shops, and usually you can come up with some extremely creative and fashionable outfits without spending a lot of money.

Bid For Luxuries – If you must have luxury items, purchase them from upscale auction houses such as Sotheby’s or Christie’s. Usually you can get some rather good deals for interesting and unique items that are in your home at quite a discount. You won’t be able to buy every item, but you can get some great things at decent prices.

Ignore Branding – You can get clothing in generic brands that look at lot like fancy designer clothing without spending nearly as much money. It won’t have the label of the expensive clothing, but it’s the same thing and you’ll pay about 70% less.

Comparison Shop – There’s a lot of markup on status-symbol items. Usually the pricing varies on such things quite a bit. Check online and see if you can’t get a better deal before forking over any money.

Buy at the Right Time – MSN Money states that retailers have a merchandise cycle of about 8 weeks. After about four weeks of a product being on the retail floor, it’ll be discounted to make room for new clothing, so time your purchases and save.

Get a Steal on a Home – A lot of people who buy expensive homes cannot afford them. Watch the foreclosure market, but don’t buy the house on the courthouse steps. Most of the time the bank buys the home back. After the bank buys it back to recover their loss, try to buy it from the bank after the sale on the courthouse steps and usually you can get a decent discount in purchasing the home.