Want the true secret on how to afford a luxury lifestyle in 2025 when the cost of living is so high? Keep reading to find out more.
So, I previously covered how to afford luxury on a budget which many of you loved, but what if you wanted to buy as much luxury as you want, in 2025, without worrying about breaking the bank?
Nobody tells you this, but I’m going to spill the honest secret with you on how I myself, and many others can afford to buy luxury designer bags, clothes, jewellery, etc in 2025.
The year is 2025, the price of everything has skyrocketed, from groceries, to rent, luxury brands, even the Chanel bag that I once bought for under £5,000 retails for over £10,000 at the Chanel store.
But I feel like the word luxury is often misunderstood. It’s sold to us as a status symbol: a trending designer bag, or an expensive watch, etc.
But real luxury? It’s peace. It’s the freedom to say no. It’s the space to choose your time, your look, your experiences—without money being the deciding factor.
Luxury to me is the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Whether that’s a trip to your favourite designer store & buying whatever you want. Or craving a change of scenery & booking a flight immediately to clear your head. It’s living life on your own terms.
So how do we afford that in 2025? When cost of living is rising more than salaries itself, or a huge wave of capitalism is shoved down our throats, whether that’s on social media or constant ads.
Let me be real with you—I don’t play the game the way most do. I stopped chasing cheap versions of luxury and started focusing on wealth.
Because when you increase your income and expand your ‘money’ mindset, you’re no longer choosing between groceries and your dream vacation or a well-made designer bag.
Here’s how I started building a life where luxury is normal, not something I “treat” myself to. These are my top 3 real secrets on how to afford a luxury lifestyle in 2025 —no gatekeeping.
How To Afford Luxury Lifestyle In 2025 – Step By Step
1. I Stopped Budgeting and Started Earning More
There’s truly one thing I changed that transformed my finances forever: I created multiple streams of income.
What does that mean? In simple terms, it means I earn money from doing different things, not just relying on 1 paycheck.
I currently have my full-time job where I am employed as a digital marketing strategist for luxury brands. And sure, while that pays me a good salary (which covers my rent in London & bills), you know me, I’m a girl who loves fashion & shopping.
I’ve been cursed with a taste of preferring the finer things in life. Okay, it’s not that bad, it’s not necessarily a ‘curse’. But because I understand myself and the lifestyle I want, and after reading lots of finance books on how to increase your wealth, I created multiple streams of income which pay for my lifestyle.
I turned shopping from “guilt” to “a business expense.”
Types of multiple streams of income:
Blog:
- I run 3 blogs, including surgeofstyle.com which is my personal site, but I run 2 other bigger sites with a team of freelance copywriters which has over 100,000 monthly visitors, which runs ads from the biggest ad networks like Raptive. Raptive can pay up to 5 figures monthly, if you scale your online platform strategically. You can run a blog about anything: fashion, finance, health, beauty, gardening. The most important thing is that you bring in lots of traffic using SEO. This took me 3+ years to achieve, but believe me, if I can do it, so can you.
Digital products:
- Selling digital products: I used to do this a lot at university, but you can create a digital product and sell it on a large scale. For example, I used to create wardrobe planners & budgeting templates on Canva, then I used to market them on Pinterest, and I would sell my templates on ETSY. This used to make me £1,500 – £2,000 per month. Examples of digital products to sell are: E-books, templates, guides, courses. Ask yourself, what value can I give to people? Then create it into a digital masterpiece & promote it. All you need is 1 sale, then, it only gets better from there.
Affiliate Marketing:
- Affiliate Marketing & earning commissions: I feel like people mention this all the time, but nobody actually says what it is. Here is the honest truth. Affiliate marketing is when you promote a product for people to buy, then when they buy it, you get paid a commission for the sale. E.g, say I promote a pair of jeans from H&M that cost £30. I post these jeans all over my TikTok or my blog. Somebody buys the jeans with my link. I may earn 5% comission. That’s £1.50. Now imagine 50 people bought those jeans. That’s £75 in my pocket. If you’re on any social media platforms, and you’re someone who buys products, leverage this. Start creating affiliate links for the products you recommend to people. Use Amazon Associates or RewardStyle to get started.
Investing:
- Getting paid while you sleep: okay, hear me out, I think investing is another thing people never really talk about but here’s the real tea on how this makes me money. I invest in ‘high paying dividend stocks’. What does that mean? Dividends mean: money paid to you, simply because you are an owner of a particular stock. E.g, say Kering (the brand that owns Gucci), it costs £160 to buy 1 Kering stock. Kering pay 3.67% dividends to you, simply for owing that stock. This means, if you have 1 Kering stock, you will receive a dividend pay of £5.88 from Kering. Say you have 10 Kering stocks (£1,600), you will receive a dividend pay of ‘3.67% x £1,600’ which is £58.72. And so on. But the trick is to do your research on ‘high-paying dividend stocks’ – these can pay up to 10-15% for owning their stock. It’s also important to brush up on some financial literacy so you understand a little bit about the stock market. I started investing in 2020, during lockdown, in a variety of companies, and it has paid off long-term. Investing is a long-term wealth strategy, but eventually your wealth will compound (build) over time.
2. I Learned How Money Moves (And Copied the Rich)
I’ll be blunt, the reason so many influencers can afford new Chanel bags every month isn’t because they’re sitting on mountains of cash, it’s 2 things. They’ve either been sent a designer bag by the brand, to promote on their platform OR they’re money-savvy and they’ve mastered the flow of money.
I remember when I was contacted by Farfetch years ago during Gucci’s launch of their 1955 Horsebit bag and I was paid to promote the new bag. When you work in fashion, there are such opportunities to receive bags from brands.
Another case in point is through credit.
I used to be scared of credit cards. Now I use them strategically. I have a credit card with points that cover flights, Ubers, and hotel stays. If I buy a luxury item, I’ll sometimes put it on credit (especially when there’s cashback involved), but I pay it off immediately—usually the same week. This boosts my credit score, earns me rewards, and keeps my cash flowing for investments.
Wealthy people do this all the time. They never tie up their liquid cash unless it’s earning them more in return. Credit is simply a bridge between money you already have and the life you’re designing.
If you want to read more about how to build credit through luxury purchases, check out this Reddit thread or this article by PAUSE Magazine.
3. When You Set up A Business, Your Lifestyle Is An Expense
One of the most underrated shifts I made? Registering as a business. That changed everything. I now have a business bank account, and when I buy something for content (a luxury lipstick, a designer blazer for fashion content, I log it as a business expense). Every business person knows this. That means when tax season comes around, I’m not paying for these things twice – once at checkout, and again in tax.
And I’m not alone. Most influencers and creators are doing this, many of them learned from accountants who specialise in content creation. When you have a business, getting a good accountant on your team is key.
Another example is one of my friends who is a beauty content creator on TikTok. With the money she earns from affiliate marketing (she promotes makeup products to her followers, they buy it on her LTK/RewardStyle, and she earns commissions), during tax season, she creates her income report and logs all of the makeup she bought to create the TikTok video as a business expense because those products are the cost of running her TikTok business.
- MUST READ: How people like Jeff Bezos can afford a luxury lifestyle, and believe me, it’s not what you think. Billionaire Jeff Bezos pays himself only $80,000 a year. This article explains why.
If you want to read more about how this works, I highly recommend watching this YouTube video on how to properly do your taxes & expenses.
Once I tapped into this mindset, I realised luxury isn’t bought—it’s leveraged. The goal isn’t to spend more, it’s to circulate money in smarter ways, which I believe is how to truly afford a luxury lifestyle.
You don’t have to choose between being rich and looking rich. You can be strategic, create income, invest in yourself, and let money flow through you, not control you.
I hope this guide gave you plenty of insight in terms of how to afford a luxury lifestlye in 2025.
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase through my links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices correct at time of publication.
