{"id":91123,"date":"2020-08-22T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T21:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=91123"},"modified":"2024-02-24T12:51:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T19:51:22","slug":"why-you-can-have-nice-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/why-you-can-have-nice-things","title":{"rendered":"If You’re Denying Yourself ‘Nice Things’ in the Name of Frugality, You’re Doing It Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third article in a series discussing my version of luxury house hacking, which I believe is the premier opportunity for the vast majority of folks today. You can find the other two articles <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you look, there are so many comments between the two previous editions. I guess you might say I struck a nerve. However, a few comments expressed a perspective that <\/span>I ask too many questions and provide too few answers. <\/span><\/i>Let me address this very briefly.<\/span><\/p>\n

My job is not to put a fish in your mouth, Mr. Millennial. That’s your mother’s job. My job is to teach you to think! If you want answers, there are plenty of articles to choose from on BiggerPockets. If you want to believe that wholesaling is the answer to everything, there are plenty of articles to affirm your belief. If you want to believe that rentals are better than shares, there are plenty of articles on that, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

I happen to have wholesaled. I own rentals. I do Airbnb. I own stocks. I make money online. I\u2019ve had a real estate license. Why? Because markets work in cycles, and to make money, we fill voids. Unequivocally believing that this strategy or the other is forever the one and only answer to everything is just stupid.<\/span>
\n
\nRelated:<\/strong> A Case Against Frugality: Why Pinching Pennies is NOT the Best Path to Wealth<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve set a very high bar for myself\u2014I want to teach you creative thought. I want you to know who you are so as to be able to analyze all available opportunities and not take anyone\u2019s answer for granted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I want to share with you a perspective on life that directly applies to house hacking in general\u2014and specifically to my brand of luxury house hacking. To start, I need you to accept that everything we do in life is to facilitate some desired end. This desired end, in turn, is very much a function of your perspective on life. To understand what I preach relative to luxury house hacking, I need you to internalize where I am coming from and where I am going in my approach to life, at least to some extent. This is what determines my desired end, which, of course, tees up my methods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"life-hacking\"<\/p>\n

Is It Wrong to Want Nice Things?<\/h2>\n

Well, it depends on who you ask. We won\u2019t name any names, but according to some, you should just tighten your belt and shut up.\u00a0<\/span>I have a different perspective.<\/p>\n

Listen, I am a 42-year-old male with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. I’ve experienced my arm just stop working\u2014just like that. If my tomorrow doesn\u2019t happen today, who the hell knows if<\/em> it\u2019ll ever happen?! <\/span><\/p>\n

You think you\u2019re so different? You think you have all of the answers? You think you are invincible? You think you\u2019ve got time?<\/span><\/p>\n

You Can Have It NOW, But\u2026<\/h2>\n

That quintessential scene from The Christmas Story<\/em> in which Ralphie walks by that storefront, sees that BB gun, and fantasizes himself in possession of it (which, by the way, is a lesson on the law of attraction in and of itself)\u2014this scene explains a truth about the human condition. To deny it would be futile. All of us want more. You can run and try to hide behind that tightened belt, but who are you really fooling?<\/span>
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\nRelated:<\/strong> Most Americans Overspend & Fail at Frugality\u2026 But It\u2019s Not Why You Think<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you agree with me. You want stuff. What\u2019s the next step?<\/p>\n

Well, most of you will ask,<\/span> “How do I pay for it?”<\/p>\n

How Do I Pay for It?<\/h2>\n

How <\/span>do<\/span> you pay for it? <\/span><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t, can you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, well. You stop there.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like that infamous story about digging for gold and stopping one foot short. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do you know that you are only a slight shift in your thinking away from hitting the truth? Just one intellectual click.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paradigm Shift: You Are Asking the Wrong Question<\/h2>\n

Be honest\u2014when you think about making money, it is totally separate from the things you want to buy with that money, right? In other words, here\u2019s the thing you want, and there\u2019s the money that\u2019ll pay for it. Right hand, left hand\u2014a world apart.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what would happen if you synergized the two?\u00a0<\/span>Instead of asking, how do I pay for this thing I want<\/em>, ask, h<\/em><\/span>ow can this thing that I want pay for itself?\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Understand, y<\/span>ou can have anything you want as long as it makes enough money!<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, make the thing that you want become its own revenue stream, and then you can have it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"systems-not-goals\"<\/p>\n

You Can Have Anything You Want, as Long as It Makes Money<\/h2>\n

I wanted to teach kids to play music.\u00a0<\/span>I built a music school so that I could afford to do it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I wanted to talk about real estate all day.\u00a0<\/span>I built a website. I sell a course. Now I don\u2019t have to feel bad spending time talking about real estate investing.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to buy a nice house.\u00a0<\/span>I wasn\u2019t OK with a duplex, so I found another way. A better way. But, at the end\u2014I am house hacking.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Each one of these line items today represents a revenue stream, but they didn\u2019t begin that way. Each started out as something I wanted, but I didn\u2019t feel I had a right to pursue it unless I was able to make money with it. If I were independently wealthy, I\u2019d do these things for free because I wanted to. Such as it is, I get paid.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Luxury House Hacking Perspective<\/h2>\n

This very nice house is in my life because it has capacity to make money, while not requiring any compromises or compression of lifestyle. The \u201cluxury piece\u201d is less about the technique and more about not giving up on the vision of how I want my family to live. It\u2019s about not giving in to tradition. <\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of tradition, I had a college professor. He was an old Jewish man who\u2019d survived the concentration camps. He was a composer. One of his most memorable <\/span>quotes was,\u00a0\u201cTradition is laziness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t give up on your vision of how you want things,. Let everyone else zig\u2014they are good at it. You’ll become good at zagging.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now, if you can believe it, I am going to leave you hanging again\u2014for the third time!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Questions? Comments? Agreements? Disagreements?<\/em><\/p>\n

Leave them below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t ask, “How do I pay for this?” Ask, “How can this thing I want pay for itself?”\u00a0Understand, you can have anything if it makes money!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":810,"featured_media":114104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-development"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/810"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}