too many people think a lifestyle upgrade means buying a bigger house, a posher car, more exotic vacations, more fashionable clothes, more expensive furniture, jewelry, pets, toys, what have you. To me those are the paving stones of the road to a downgrading of your lifestyle by turning yourself into a prisoner of your possessions and possession-based ego needs.
To me an upgrade in lifestyle means having more of the things that really make me happy: leisure, fun, health, energy, intellectual stimulation, emotional fulfillment
As a matter of fact, upgrading your lifestyle doesn't take more money. What it does take is the imagination and the discipline to pull yourself out of the rut imposed by hand-me-down habits, social conditioning and sheer laziness. If you've got what it takes, the rewards are many, not the least of which is developing a lifestyle that you want, not one imposed by others.
Here are some tips for upgrading your lifestyle while actually saving money.
- Combine good food with your favorite activities Pointless and compulsive dining out, I am convinced, lies at the heart of America's social ills: bankruptcies, bulging waistlines, hysterical levels of social competitiveness, pretension, hypocrisy, alienated kids. I'm not talking about the occasional dinner out for a new ethnic cuisine, exceptional grub or the occasional business lunch, but the need to put on the dog and flock to every restaurant that's been deemed hot. Becoming a restaurant slave does more than destroy your budget and your waistline; it turns you into a bore. Why? Because you end up with nothing to talk about but what so-and-so said. It's like entering a hall of mirrors -- you get lost in reflections of reflections of reflections... That's boring -- and killing. To turn that around, remind yourself that food is incidental to fun, not the other way around. Make sure that when you eat out, it's for a very good reason, like doing something fun outside the house. Center your leisure time around an activity, not a meal. A concert under the stars, rowing on a lake, hiking a trail, a sunset walk on the beach, attending a kid's game. For about a quarter the money you'd spend in a nice restaurant, you can pack a sumptuous picnic basket, complete with wine and dessert. When you do sit down to eat, you will have something real to talk about and real use for the calories.
- Make Learning Your Number One Hobby We've all gone through that academic burnout of wanting only to be done with classes and exams. Sadly many people never shake off that mentality. Even as their brains turn into graveyards of obsolete knowledge, they remain firmly convinced that they know all there is to know because they have a diploma or two. Consequently they sink ever lower on the evolutionary scale relative to the rest of the world and wonder why the world seems to be receding in the distance. If that sounds like you, it's time to renew the zest for learning you had as a kid starting school. Your formal education only touched on a few areas of knowledge. The advances in the natural sciences and technology, not to mention evolution in thinking in the social scienes, during the past decade alone fill libraries
- Turn Nature into Your Backyard
- Enrich your home with Asian arts & crafts.
- Make your second car a bike.
- Buy your fruits and vegetables directly from farmers. Nature is one of life's lasting pleasures. Sadly, to many it's only the vegetation in their backyards or the view through their car windows. Whether the natural offerings in your area are rugged mountains, rolling hills or painted deserts, the scenic beauty, invigorating air and opportunities for exploration and discovery make it a vital resource for self-renewal. Nature is the only place in which you can feel at once a sense of solitude and a connection with the universe. Depending on climate, terrain and accessibility, buy yourself a good pair of hiking boots, a backpack and a canteen and find a spot where you can enjoy nature in relative isolation. It doesn't have to be an all-day commitment, especially if you're a tenderfoot. Once you experience a couple of hours of nature, you will be looking forward to the next outing when you can spend more time discovering what's around the bend or over the ridge. Before long you will be itching to learn your way around entire mountain ranges. If you're one of those restless people who needs something to keep your hands busy, combine nature with a hobby like photography or rock collecting. Cultivating an active appreciation for nature is the least expensive and most pleasant way to decrease your sense of alienation from a sometimes senseless world while increasing your physical vitality. No matter how expensively your home is furnished, it screams second-rate unless it show a distinctive connection to who you are. At its best a home is a reflection of your soul. That doesn't mean it has to be filled with antiques to be authentic. Get acquainted with the arts and crafts of your ancestral culture. Even the sleekest, most ultra-modern home can be connected to your family heritage through choice accents like Chinese armoires, calligraphy scrolls, celadon urns, Japanese screens. When you reaffirm your cultural lineage, you elevate your home from a possession to a symbol of cultural ownership. What's more responsive than a Porsche, sexier than a Ferrari, quieter than a Benz, more rugged than a Hummer and gets better gas mileage than a Honda Civic gas-electric hybrid? You know the answer. A bike is also cheaper than a health-club membership and will make you look better than a whole new wardrobe. Combine it with a bumper rack and it will take you to unforgettable places the way no car can. Fruits and vegetables bred for shelf life and picked prematurely to be ripened in cargo containers and refrigerated warehouses just don't taste as good as their freshly picked counterparts. They also lack much of the nutritional value. To add insult to injury, supermarket produce is often more expensive than the offerings of roadside stands, farmers markets and farms themselves. Besides, what could be more romantic than picking peaches or tomatoes in some scenic countryside in the good old summertime?
- Automate your financial life. Paying bills ranks near the bottom of everyone's list of favorite activities. Running to the bank to deposit and cash checks are down there too. If you're still wasting precious time doing such things the old-fashioned way, you're a relic of the twentieth century. Thanks to the internet, you can take care of every financial transaction from the comfort of your PC. Start by opening an online checking account -- which can be done online in most cases. That will let you automate everything from depositing your paychecks to paying bills to transferring money to savings or retirement accounts. Yes, you can finally bid adieu to paper checks, bank lines and postal boxes, and spend the time on more twenty-first-century things like locating and downloading those old twentieth-century favorites into your iTunes library
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