Joining Equinox Will Save Me a Minimum of $18,000 This Year

I have been a fitness junkie for as long as I could remember. I started in budget gyms such as Bally Total Fitness which started as a $45/monthly membership which slowly dropped in price where I then paid a cool $500 for 3 years. I also held membership to privately owned gyms that cost $125 a year as well. The one thing that stayed true in my mind is that gyms were never considered as anything other than a tool for fitness. This is where my thinking was fatally wrong.

Recently I had an opportunity to try out Equinox gyms here in NYC. If you are unfamiliar with the brand, it is a high end athletic sports gym that has other great amenities such as a lunch room/cafe, lounge to do work, free wi-fi, pools, steam rooms, saunas, towel service, expensive branded shampoo and body wash as well as other grooming necessities, a very large facility that is so clean and hygienic that you wouldn't think twice about eating that piece of kale that you dropped on the floor (maybe). I had the pleasure of trying out their sport club, which is one of the upper tier clubs that would cost more to gain admission to. It was 4 stories high and they had a rock climbing wall, roof top track, sun deck, boxing room, basketball court, salt water swimming pool, crossfit style gym equipment in a completely different section from the regular gym equipment, and a several separate rooms for different classes such as cycling, yoga, Pilates, etc. So as you can imagine it was absolutely something that blew my mind. I spent over 10 hours at the facility because there was so much to do and just because it was so damn comfortable being there. It was a spa/gym...paradise.

The next few days I tried out various other equinox gyms in the form similar to bar hopping. The consensus, some gyms are better than others but they all had a something in common, you felt a sense of luxury being inside the facility. They were not my regular gyms, with my gym rat bro science pals; Equinox is so much more. It was a social playground for networking. As I looked around, most of the people were either training with a personal trainer or on a treadmill or chatting up with the next person. This made me realize that everybody in this facility is here because they are seriously successful financially or work for very successful businesses that provide them gym memberships, either way I was surrounded by people "who made it". It became apparent that anybody I meet here can potentially progress my life in a better way financially either with knowledge or even career opportunities. Alas, the downer is the price tag. For a membership to Equinox gyms, you would have to pay roughly $500 dollars as an initiation fee, over $100 dollars for the annual fee and a monthly membership price of $290. I thought that was the end of my Equinox experience right then and there.

Then a stroke of genius hit me. Due to certain reasons, I have been put in a situation where I will rent out my newly purchased condo for a year. It had become very apparent to me that I have an opportunity to afford the Equinox gym membership and experience something I never thought I wanted. Live a luxurious semi homeless lifestyle. To be clear, Equinox is not a 24 hour facility. However, to my advantage, I work night shifts. I will run you through the set up -

factor 1 ➡️ I work 12 hour night shifts 4 times a week (Monday-Thursday) so I have from 7am - 6pm to relax/socialize/work on my online side business/workout at my Equinox gym.

factor 2 ➡️ I have Friday-Sunday where I have nowhere to go at night. Will need to find shelter/sleeping accommodations.

factor 3 ➡️ Equinox is not somewhere you can fall asleep in. Will need to find sleeping accommodations, period.

factor 4 ➡️ Need a place to store my clothing.

factor 5 ➡️ Either eat out all the time or find a kitchen and fridge.

Now my goal is to follow through with this plan for 1 year and live luxuriously but at the same time frugally in order to accumulate the funds to pay off my mortgage as quick as possible. To help accomplish this, I would ideally want to spend no more that $500 a month on living expenses.

factor 3&4 solved➡️ To tackle the sleeping accommodations on work days, I found a membership to access a spa for the price of $2500/year where you can laze around in their multiple saunas and many sleeping stations. They also provide me my own personal locker, so storage for clothing is now solved. However, they close at midnight so it covers my sleeping schedule daily in the morning but i still need a place to stay on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Factor 1&2&4&5 solved ➡️My parents live in NYC and agreed to hold onto any belongings/ change of clothing and provide me a bed for the remainder of the nights. I can bulk cook some meals and I am allowed to store them at work and take the prepared meals as I need.

The expenses for the spa and the highest membership level to Equinox would equate to:

Equinox -$3,605/year (Promotion- minus the $500 dollar initiation fee)

Spa -$2,500/year

3,605+2,500= 6,105 6,105 / 12 = $508.75 per month

The monthly living expense hit a little over my desired price point but not by much, and is very affordable. I mean who can have a work space with high speed wi-fi, sun deck, roof top running track, pool, steam room, upscale gym facilities with classes taught by top notch instructors and sleep in an actual spa everyday for less than rent for a shitty room in the projects here in NYC. Is it the ideal living conditions? Not quite, this equation could only be done because I could always fall back on my parents place to crash for the weekends. I would also be eating out often, so unless I eat at diners and cheap food joints like subway sandwiches, the cost of food expenses would add up rather quickly. Also living a minimalist lifestyle will no longer be a choice, it will be forced upon me. However, seeing as I save over 1.5k every month. I will probably come out fitter than I ever will be in my lifetime, be so much more productive on my entrepreneur endeavors, networked valuable contacts and have experienced a luxurious semi homeless lifestyle. So you tell me is a gym just a gym?

#equinox #equinoxmembershipsavesmemoney #homelessstrategy #spaandgym