Reasonably Fabulous!

Usually when I write, I draw my topics and inspiration from life. Sometimes it is from mine and sometimes it is from the lives of others, but this time it is a mix. I, like most of the people I know, have a reality TV addiction and one of my favorite shows right now is “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

Like many others, I have lately noticed how Sheree runs around town looking fabulous with an arsenal of Hermes Birkin bags ($10,000 handbags) and a new Porsche Panamera ($75,000 car), but I wonder if things are as fabulous as they appear. Like Phaedra said, “Perception is reality.” And for far too many of us, we want people to perceive we are more fabulous than we actually are with our material possessions. We have the accoutrements that make us fabulous, but this fails to guarantee we are fabulous.

I am not about to bash Sheree, but to all of my FAB ones out there reading, I would like to teach you about how to live fabulously. When I was younger and still F.I.T. (fabulous in training), I did not realize the importance of money. My life was consumed with looking good and sparing no expense to do so. I was living paycheck to paycheck because I would spend money on the newest designer clothes every week, meanwhile I really had nothing to show for it.

As I have matured, I have come to realize that my fabulous is not based on my clothes, it is based on me. I now have a handsome savings account (it is almost as handsome as I am) and think twice before I make any purchase.

It is about living a 360 degree fabulous life. This means looking good, having a nice home, traveling in style, but still having money in your account. Being fabulous is about living within your means and not beyond them. So if you partake in this practice, now is a good time to curtail this bad habit and begin to brainstorm some type of saving strategy.

So in this New Year, evaluate your cost of being fabulous. If it is costing you too much, you may need to change something so you are not living a faux fabulous life.

Because to be fabulous, you have to know what makes you fabulous!