What do I consider a Louis Vuitton lifestyle? It’s a luxury lifestyle that is supported by your income. I heard this quote once “If you can’t buy it twice, you can’t afford it”. I believe this was said by Jay-Z. After hearing this, I thought, what a fabulous way to think twice about how we spend our money. To me, if you can’t purchase the same thing twice in CASH, you can’t afford it.

Now this doesn’t mean you can never indulge because hey, we all need to spoil ourselves once in awhile. What this does mean however, is that if you are purchasing out of want instead of need, then think twice because the Louis Vuitton lifestyle can be very difficult to maintain. I like to look at it as “if I purchase this now, how will it take away from my future?” How much longer will I need to work if I make this purchase? Do I want to be working until I’m 95?

An example from my own life: I had an issue with “retail therapy”. I would take what I was lacking in one area of my life and replace it with an outlet of instant gratification. My retail therapy would include purchases that I couldn’t afford to pay in cash twice and it took away from my current and future life of important things that I could be using that money for. I would use credit cards to pay for my purchase and then complain that I couldn’t pay off my debt SMH…I know, I know…how dumb you say right? Wrong, because I am not in the minority when it comes to this type of thinking, I’m in the majority. Changing my mindset, changed my outcome, which then allowed me to properly control and grow a genuine love and appreciation relationship with my money.

“The Louis Vuitton lifestyle” is nice but only if you can afford it twice!

Lisa Smith

Photo by Dylan Patterson on Unsplash