Yesterday I dd something interesting as I attended a strata council meeting for a person as he was currently away on vacation. Therefore, even though I don’t live in the building I basically got to hear all of the concerns and proposal for the building. The biggest issue appeared to be how the building currently didn’t allow owners to rent out their suite. As a result, there were debates on how this has stopped so many people from wanting to purchase a suite there and hence it decreased the value of the property.

What was interesting to me were the wild numbers thrown up such as how one real estate agent was saying just with the simple notion of allowing owners to rent out suites it could increase the value of the place by about 0.5% while another said 1%. That seemed to be the only thing everyone was focused on too. I would assume normally even things like whether or not the property allowed children would be a good factor too.

Inserting point too where if you knew there was a property where the current owners are probably close to in favor of allowing the property to be rented out then you could buy the place for a lot lower and then see it rise up pretty immediately once that is in place. Not a bad thing to think about from an investment point of view.

The other week for one reason or another I saw a lot of advertisement for these kale chips and it sounded like something I would be interested in trying it. However, the prices seemed ludicrous such as three dollars for a pretty small bag. I get the notion that healthy stuff is usually more expensive but that was a little steep I thought. My immediate thought was how hard can it be to do it yourself?

So, I went to buy a small bunch of kale for a little over a dollar and then started to visit some sites to get the gist of how people make it. It seemed pretty idiot proof too where it was literally wash the product, put some oil if you want and then bake. Literally that was it. I tried it and it seemed great. Of course, the biggest thing that came to mind again was how much money you could save by simplify doing things yourself.

Looking at how much you could make with a small bunch it was like two to three bags worth of product if you were to buy the commercially made stuff. This is like one of those situations too where when you actually do it yourself and see the savings you can’t help but not to become more financially aware of your spending habits and looking for better ways to save money.

I was reading some interesting points today when it comes to the notion of achieving being financially independence as apparently a lot of people associate that phrase with simply how much you make. For example, if you make a million dollars a year then you have achieved financial independence. There was a point though saying how someone could make like two thousand dollars a year where they could be a person who achieved financial independence as it is based mainly on the notion if a person generates more income than their expenses.

That does make sense in many ways as a person who makes a million dollars a year could pretty much be in the same situation as a person who makes less due to spending habits. For example, a person that insists in buying a house worth ten million dollars and insisting in dining in the most expensive places each day. It should kind of make you think where if you are always so caught up about having to make more money maybe it’s more about reducing expenses as much as possible.

It must be weird to think like that based on what we are used to though. Example, instead of worrying that you must find a way to make like say one thousand a month to buy food it should be more about how can you reduce that expense to as little as possible even if it means growing your own food. Basically, financial independence is more about having no outstanding expenses at the end of the day as opposed to how much you make. Sounds more logical to me personally.

Today there was a person who was saying that they saw a really good deal for this property and as a result they wanted to buy it as soon as possible. The funny thing was while expressing this enthusiasm various people that she knew were saying that you should never show your excitement like that to the person as it could limit your ability to negotiate a better price.

I guess it’s the same mentality of if you are trying to sell something and show desperation then stereotypically the other person will use that to their advantage as they know you want to try and get rid of whatever it is pretty quickly. In many ways it’s almost like telling people that they need to adopt a poker face whenever you buy things that require negotiation. One of those very basic things that works in many cases I suppose.

I heard an interesting debate today where a person who owned a private school was essentially telling everyone in his industry that consists of mostly entrepreneurs that if they don’t consistently go to like workshops or classes, like the one he offers, then there is no way they will succeed. The example he used was like any other profession such as a doctor where you study for years and continue to do so. Otherwise no one will take you seriously.

This spurred a lot of debate as some were saying if you can’t invest a few hundred dollars in yourself then you don’t deserve success whereas of course the other side of the coin was that they were saying that because it is their goal to convince you to spend money with them. This was one of those situations too where a lot of people didn’t make that much money as it is and so for them it can be one of those debates where it’s like spend $200 on a class/workshop or use that to feed yourself for the month.

One thing I have always been told and seen is that when it comes to being self employed or an entrepreneur there is no real one path for everyone. For example, for everyone who spent say thousands of dollars in books and classes to succeed there are probably just as many stories of people who simply put in the sweat labor each day and achieved the same results.

This is usually more debatable with professions that deal with a trades skill. For example, imagine a photographer who is getting no business and then a school saying the key to being successful is to constantly go to school and eventually they will succeed. Like there you could argue it’s not the technical skills the person needs but rather marketing strategies. It’ s completely different if the person didn’t know the terminology or basics on how to use the camera in general of course.

From what I have observed personally, if a person is trying to make you feel like there is no way you can succeed unless you buy a whole bunch of books or classes from them then it’s kind of obvious what their real intent is. This may be more true for a nine to five setting, but being self employed is a whole different ballgame I think.