Glamour is About Your Mindset, Not Your Money {Success Planning Confidential}

In order to live a glamorous lifestyle, you need a lot of money, right?

If you are looking at the advertisements and editorial spreads in the glossy magazines or adding “this is glamorous” images to your Pinterest boards, you may get the feeling that you need gobs of money so that you can buy the $500+ shoes with the red soles or the luxury convertible or the special bedding that is made by elves living in the forest.

But the truth of the matter is that glamour isn’t about the label on the clothes or the car.  Glamour is about your mindset that refuses to accept mediocrity and the pressure to conform to an arbitrary template of what it means to be “glamorous.”  In fact, our Success Planning mentor, Alfred Armand Montapert, reminds us that we need to use our money wisely so that it will work for us in the long run for peace of mind.  He isn’t against having nice things…but he admonishes us that going into debt for those nice things is just plain foolish.  He also quotes John Lubbock when he encourages us to keep track of how we are spending money:

Always keep accounts, and keep them carefully.  Keep them so that you know how the money goes and how much things cost you.  No man who knows what his income is, and what he is spending, will run into extravagance.  Spendthrifts begin by shutting their eyes to what they are doing.  No one would face the precipice of ruin with his eyes open.  Whatever you do then, live within your income.  Save something, however little, every month.  ~ John Lubbock

Way back in 2000, I read the first editions of Your Money or Your Life and The Millionaire Next Door.  As a result, I started keeping track of everything I spent.  Everything.  I still do.  And I keep track of it manually, not via download from my bank (which won’t work since I use cash for almost everything).  I now view purchases from the “how much time does it take for me to earn this?” perspective and what the total return on investment will be.   Needless to say, a lot of things are left on the shelf when I realize just how much work-related stress that item really costs me!

I’m not wearing expensive shoes nor driving a luxury car (unless Toyota Corollas are now in that category).  But I am still timeless in clothing choices, standing up straight when everyone else is slouching, and have peace of mind.  As a result, a lot of women have told me that I have inspired them to move beyond mediocrity.

Glamour is internal that radiates outward.  It is a mindset that can’t be bought on credit.  We can’t be glamorous without peace of mind.