This Woman Spends $20,000/year On Beauty

You gotta read this fascinating article. The Wall Street Journal asked 4 women to share their spending on beauty goods and services like makeup, haircuts, and yoga.

You’ll find responses like:

  • “Hair color with Serge Normant $300 x 10 a year = $3,000”
  • “Ultherapy 1 treatment = Starts at $3,500”
  • “Manicure and pedicure $60 x 18 a year = $1,080”

First of all, notice the rising anger in your stomach. What’s that word bubbling up from deep inside? It starts with an “R”…that’s right, let it out… “Ridi”…

Almost there…

RIDICULOUS!! HOW DARE THESE WOMEN SPEND SO MUCH ON THIS FRIVOLOUS BULLSHIT?”

OK, people, let’s cut the shit.

I actually love articles like this for 3 reasons:

  1. These articles are written to stir populist rage. It happens over and over with the prices of apartments, organic eggs, and now women’s beauty products. If you buy into the anger, you are the target and the news media has won.
  2. Yes, a lot of people are actually spending this much money. (In fact, I bet these women didn’t share the true amount they spend. I know I wouldn’t have. And I wrote about how I spend $50,000/year on luxury services!) Instead, I like to ask, “Who buys this stuff?” Even when I had no money, I still wanted to know what the highest people in any market were buying or using. I’d never heard of Tom Ford suits or La Mer cosmetics. But I still wanted to know. I call this the D-to-C Principle: Disparagement to Curiosity.
  3. What kind of person can afford this stuff? Don’t you want to know? This is how I started to demystify wealth and understand that it’s not magic, it’s just math.

By the way, some people will simply scoff at the above points and write me stupid angry emails saying, “Your blog posts are pure fluff. Only a selfish person would spend $20,000 on cosmetics when there are children dying in the world. Personally, I choose to spend time with my grandchildren. I do not need your fancy materialistic stuff.”

That’s great, Mildred. Ironically, these angry emails (1) are the most judgmental of all, and (2) have seriously screwed up views on wealth, usually, “anyone who has money is evil because I don’t have money and I am not evil so therefore anyone who has it must be evil because I am not evil.” Get it?

I believe we should spend extravagantly on the things we love, as long as we cut mercilessly on the things we don’t.

Do I think people should pay for “energy healing”? No, I think it’s fucking moronic. But it’s their money, and if they can afford it, I’m all for it.

If you found out how much I spent for my cashmere sweater, you’d faint. But if someone in Mexico found out how much you pay for your gym membership, they’d also vomit. Get real.

So rather than scoffing at these prices and saying, “So stupid. You know you could get the same thing for 10x cheaper, right??,” try a different approach: Study the best and watch what top performers are doing. They’re not stupid. What do they know that you might not?

That’s one of the reasons I was happy to showcase the story of Danny, a Zero to Launch graduate, this week. He went from $0 to $100,000+ in revenue in less than 12 months. That’s not an accident.

I also shared one of my most popular articles of all time: Ramit’s Tough Love for Delusional People. Share this with any lazy friends who rant about student loans / politics, but don’t actually do anything to improve their lives. If they want to email their angry rants, they can send them to rightinthetrash@iwillteachyoutoberich.com.

Finally, my goal is to show you that the information to live a Rich Life is right in front of you. You don’t need an advanced degree. You don’t need to wait until some magical day when some business fairy blesses you with her pixie dust. You can do this right now.

And most of my material is free! Here you go:

Want a $50,000 raise? We have the best free material to show you how.

Want to pay down your debt? We’ve got a sophisticated tool that will put together a repayment plan for you.

Ready to start that online business you’ve been thinking about? We’ve got a free crash-course to get you started.

Bottom line, I’d love to help you this year. And I’m delivering on my end of the bargain — to always aim for creating free material that’s better than anyone else’s paid stuff.

I want you to hold up your end of the bargain, too. Nobody’s going to do it for you. The problem — and the solution — is you.

P.S. My friend Steve Kamb just published his first book. It’s called Level Up Your Life — a really interesting take on improving your own life journey, from finding what you want to do, to overcoming mental barriers (I love the section starting on page 41), to shifting into performance mode. Check it out.

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