June 29, 2011

Financial Nugget

FABULOUS+BROKE=FRONTIN'
A young Essence.com contributor shares lessons on being image-obsessed and how she coped with major Hollywood-glam pressure while covering the BET awards. Good stuff! And, as inspiration for our sister circle to stay frugally chic, I've added Jessie J's Price Tag vid...Keep it 100, ladies!
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I'm writing to you from L.A. I'm out here at the BET Awards. And all weekend, I've been seeing fabulous people at chi-chi, foo foo events. In the past four days, I've been (window) shopping on Melrose Place, Rodeo Drive and The Grove, partying at the W, Mr. Chow and SLS, hitting up every “official” anything I can get into (and on the list for) -- all in the name of enjoying my book tour/vacay. But I gotta be honest, as I work the scene, I've been wondering where I fall short.

Here's the deal: I work a full-time job, keep a full-time hustle, and just published a book -– and of course, my new “Real Talk” blog. And yet, I can't pop bottles, rock red bottoms, or splurge on Louis Vuitton at will. And more often than not, even though I don't have kids or student loans, when I crunch the numbers, the math just doesn't add up to pay my bills, contribute to my 401(k), stash a chunk away for a rainy day, and still be high-end, designered-down four days in a row, much less today.

So for most of my getaway, I've been sitting in a friend’s cabana or VIP suite, drinking X-Rated Fusion Liqueur, sparingly. And all the while, I'm calculating numbers in my head of what everything costs to live the glamorous life. Honestly, I am also wondering what I'm doing wrong. How is it that I work from sunup to sundown (literally), and I don't have the life, that fabulous life, that so many others seem to having?

More after this jump...

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