Living Rich the Lazy Way
Forget about the usual ways
When the average guy thinks of enjoying himself he sees himself spending a lot of money to do it. He calls a travel agent to have a whole trip arranged and it cost him a fortune. If he desires to live in some kind of luxury housing, he either gets up the enormous rent payments or he just doesn't live there. Well, you can forget about doing things that way.
We're going to tell you how to obtain gracious living accommodations which will cost you little or nothing, how to travel luxuriously and make a profit while doing it, and how to use every resource available to enjoy life and make money too.
Where are you going to live?
Have you ever thought about house-sitting? That's where you reside in a mansion, in order to take care of it while the owner is away. And the way some wealthy people travel or spend time away from home, that mansion may be all yours, so to speak, for 8 to 9 months of the year. There is usually one car that goes along with the house and you may even be supervising a couple of people who do the everyday chores and maintenance.
Putting your home on display
If, however, you own your own home, but you would like it to be decorated more elaborately, you might try to arrange with an interior decorator and/or a furniture company to provide the decoration and furnishings in exchange for being allowed to bring potential customers to your house to show what a good job they do. The best prospect to approach for this kind of arrangement is a decorator or furniture dealer who has just started his business in your area, and is therefore eager to have a top-notch "real-life" display.
There are other unusual and shrewd ways of arranging to have a very nice place to live when you're going to be traveling. For example, consider the following idea.
Uncle Pierre wants you
Would you like to live in France, or any other country, for business or for a long vacation? You may be able to exchange homes with a French family; they will live in your home here while you live in theirs in France. Of course, the locations, both here and there, must suit both parties, and the length of time involved must be coordinated also. But it's worth doing because it can give you a "home away from home." Contact the embassy of the country you'd like to live in and they'll probably be able to help you arrange it.
Traveling for business is good business
Whenever possible, make all your trips, even if they are really vacation trips, provably serve some aspect of your business so you can deduct the cost of them from your corporation's profits. The tax rate on corporation profits is 48%, so it makes good sense to deduct the cost of your trip from your overall profits. That could save you up to half the cost of the trip; Uncle Sam will, in effect, pay it for you! This can be done very often if you are in business in which traveling is a necessity, such as import/export. If you are a travel agent you will often be invited by airlines, cruises, hotels and resorts to travel or stay with them as their guest; they hope, of course, you will then send your travel agency customers to them. But this can work also if you're in a business or occupation, like advertising or public relations or writing, where you can give them free publicity in return.
Or you might want to be the organizer of a charter tour. You then have an even wider choice of when and where to go, and you as the organizer travel free. You should even pick up a handsome profit besides, if you handle it right. First you must find people who want to go. Often the easiest way is to choose people who are already affiliated in some way; they work for the same company or belong to the same club or church. Then comes the choice of where to go. You might question them, giving them the choice of place or you may start to make some tentative preliminary enquiries about 3 or 4 places and have them choose one of those places. Get an advance deposit of at least 20%. You'll need this advance money to arrange the charter flight, places to stay, local transportation and sightseeing at the vacation spot, and so on. It also ensures that those who make the reservations will actually go because the deposit is not refundable (after a certain date).
A bonus for doing business in other countries
Our government wants to help you do more business overseas. Before you go, therefore, contact the Department of Commerce. They will arrange for you to meet people in each country you visit who are in your industry and related fields. The Commerce Dept. won't guarantee it, of course, but if you play your cards right, these potential business associates will wine and dine you and act as warm hosts in their native countries. It not only costs you nothing; it promotes business and lets you meet people who can really show you the best of everything in their countries.
Traveling at Government Expense
Have you ever thought of getting paid to travel--of living and working overseas? Uncle Sam now has over 230,000 of his citizens working for him abroad. And you don't have to be a scientist or technical specialist to be one of them. Persons with clerical and office skills, as well as those with administrative abilities, are needed. So are plumbers, machinists, woodworkers and painters.
American companies also send people abroad
Don't forget the huge corporations if you're thinking of a job abroad. Such companies as Citibank of New York, Johns- Manville, IBM, International Harvester, Westinghouse and many more, have Americans working for them overseas; and the pay scales in many of these companies are higher than for their workers in the same jobs at home. And there are jobs working for foreign governments or private foreign companies that often pay well and are quite interesting besides. For example, in those countries where oil is being produced in huge quantities (such as many of the Middle Eastern countries) there is a need for people with experience in this field. What's more, the general increase in wealth brought by the oil industry in those countries produces a huge growth in the construction of roads, buildings, factories, bridges, hotels and many more things. People are needed to build and operate all of these; if you've got the skills in demand, you can certainly land a job, what's more, being there at the time when things are growing may let you in on the ground floor of other moneymaking opportunities. In fact, if you're the adventurous type, you'll not only probably make more money abroad, but have a great time, too!
Don't just be a Customer, be a Reporter
Generally people pay to go to a restaurant, sports event, theater performance or movie. But reviewers don't pay; that is, if you write about movies for any publication, no matter how small or hinky-dinky the paper or magazine is, you, the reviewer, see the movie free. The same goes for restaurants and other events,. But in order to keep this gimmick working time after time you should really be reviewing these places for some publication. This isn't as hard to arrange as you might think. Many small papers can't afford a large staff so they are looking for people who will write for them for little or no payment. But who should that non-payment bother you? After all, the genuine credentials they give you as their reviewer lets you enjoy all those great leisure activities for free. And with VIP treatment, too.
Making money while you're absent
If you own the right kind of property, you can make money as an absentee owner. Owning an apartment building is a fairly uncomplicated process that can bring in good money. Your manager or superintendent runs the building but all the rents are sent directly to you. When any fuel oil is delivered, or anything else for that matter, the bills are sent to you. When the manager needs outside repairmen to work on the building, he has them send the bill to you. Thus, since you control all the cash flow (in from the rents, out to pay bills) you can be totally in charge yet you need only devote a few hours once in a while to actually go and look at the building to make sure your manager is taking good care of it.
If you must pay, then pay as little as possible
Ok, let's face it; the above methods, good as they are, may not always be available to you. You may actually have to pay to travel and have a good time. Well, you can still travel in style yet pay very little. The trick is to know that high- quality, low-priced alternatives are available. For example, your airline fare will most likely be your biggest expense. So try not to take a scheduled airline flight at the height of the season leaving in daylight hours on a weekend. If you can, avoid the regular flights and get on a charter flight. Under recent law, charter flights are now freely available to individuals. You don't have to be part of a group. What you must do, though, is book your flight well in advance. And if you can't avoid taking a regular airline, then fly at night in the middle of the week. And even if your trip is really a vacation, try, nevertheless, to do something connected directly to your business while there. That's because airlines generally offer a better price to a vacationer who buys a round-trip ticket and stays on vacation for three weeks or more. Most business trips take only a few days and that round trip fare is higher. But if you take a 5 week vacation, say, and conduct business for 8 days during those 5 weeks, then you can deduct from your taxes your air fare and your expenses (hotel, food, etc.) for the 8 days you were conducting business.
So go ahead and get your share of the good life; just remember it's even more fun if you can make a profit or save money. You didn't get the money you have by being wasteful or careless. Enjoy yourself, sure! Just watch what you're doing so you'll have plenty of money to keep on enjoying yourself.
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