Just recently there was a lottery jackpot for 14.5 million dollars around here and the winner turned out to be more than one person as the winners were actually a group of employees who worked in an A&W restaurant. Like many others, they dreamed of one day winning the lottery and so each week they all placed some money into a weekly lottery pool to hopefully win the jackpot. Fortunately for them, they did win. No more flipping burgers for them I guess.

However, there is more to this story as they cannot claim the prize just yet due to a dispute on how many people are entitled to the winnings. At the moment it seems that nine people will definitely receive a cut of the jackpot, but in the midst of this are two other people who are claiming that they should receive a percentage of the jackpot as well as they have frequently contributed money into the lottery pool. From what I have read thus far, apparently these two people did not contribute any money into the lottery pool during this particular draw. So now there are going to be lawyers involved to hopefully settle this fiasco. If what I read so far is true, than it should be as simple as a you snooze you lose for the two trying to get in on the jackpot.

There is probably going to be an influx of lottery pools in the workplaces around here now for all those who hope to get rich quick.

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Looks like there is now a new method for authors to sell their short stories and literatures online as Amazon.com has introduced a system where people can purchase an author’s work for 49 cents and then view it by simply downloading a pdf file, viewing it online or receiving it through e-mail.

I’m always a big fan of these kinds of methods that help people to distribute their work and products to a global audience. This definitely creates another opportunity for people to make money online as the level of playing field is now more open for writers who are struggling to get their work published for people to buy. I guess we now play the wait and see game, but hopefully a lot of people will benefit from it and at the same time this will probably introduce readers to new undiscovered authors as well.

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Today while browsing the Internet I read about a sales event located in Henrico County near Richmond, Virginia where there were about 1000 used laptops selling for about $50 each. This was one of those first-come first-serve sales and not surprisingly there was a large crowd waiting to get their hands on one. The laptops were apparently 4 year old Apple iBooks that were previously used by students in a public high school. Regardless of how old they are, that is a pretty cheap price for a laptop I must say.

As soon as the gates opened, the crowd went into a frenzy as people disregarded others to try and guarantee themselves a fifty dollar iBook. People were injured and many even feared for their lives. A picture is worth a thousand words and when I saw some video captures of the sales event, it continues to amaze me on how crazy people can become just to save money. While I’m probably one of the first people who would get excited over a great sale, if it involved putting my health at risk to get it that wouldn’t really be a worthwhile purchase. Not only that, but the fact that some people are willing to physically hurt others to get the sale is incredible. From what I read, there were even people who were using their vehicles to help get them through the crowd and to the front of the line.

From my experience, if you really want some good deals on old products on a consistent basis, try to talk with people who work within the industry and you’ll be surprised on how many high end items that company’s constantly want to clear out at a very low price. While I’ve personally never seen a laptop sell for $50 here, I’d rather be alive when I purchase a $1000 laptop than end up as a crippled person with a $50 laptop.

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Just recently I encountered a situation where a person who was in desperate need of money due to a large gambling debt was constantly pestering her friends into lending her money. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident as it has happened before and to make things worse she never fulfilled her promise in paying them back.

As expected, the immediate answer was no as they did not want to continually provide her with money and that lead to constant pleads and tears in hopes to convince them otherwise. While they were sympathetic, they firmly stood by their answer and went as far as saying if necessary she should sell her house to get the money that she would need to pay off her gambling debt. In the end, she left with her friends now not being an option as a way to get some quick cash to pay off her gambling debt and mentioned that her immediate family members would be her next option or to somehow get a cash advance from her workplace.

This can be a rather touchy subject as there are probably thousands of people who would immediately scream that she has the worst friends in the world and vice versa there are probably others who would say that she got what she deserved for using her friends. In my opinion, I think they made the right decision not to loan her more money as a gambling debt is not exactly a situation that you can’t avoid and if one constantly provides the person with an easy way out, they will continue with their bad habits. We all have to be independent at one point or another and while that provides you with the freedom to do what you want, that also means that you should be willing to endure the results of your own actions.

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With the busy shopping season quickly approaching, I am reminded on just how many things that people buy as they feel that they need a particular item when really they already have something that is perfectly usable for their needs. My best personal example that often causes a lot of people to become extremely baffled and amazed is the home computer that I use to do a lot of work and Internet browsing on.

Whenever I meet new people, I would get to know what they are all about and likewise they would learn about my background and experiences. The natural assumption by most is that since money isn’t really an obstacle and that the Internet is one of my prime focuses, I should be using nothing but the top of the line products as a person in my situation must need the latest and greatest. I always softly reply to that comment by mentioning about the specs of one of my computers as the reaction has always been the same. Just to list some basics, the computer that I am using right now to compose this message has a Pentium II 350 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, an 8MB video card and a hard disk drive consisting of 6.4 gigabytes of space. That probably just knocked a lot of people off their seats.

What exactly can I do with this computer? I can do all of my accounting tasks, use various word processors and graphics programs, manage various Internet sites and can even do extra curricular things such as watching TV on my PC. I bought this computer back in about 1998 and my expectation was at minimum to use it for a good five years. It’s been about 7 years now and I can still use it for a lot of work. I could easily just buy a new computer every year or so, but I’m sure even most computer users would agree that technology progresses so fast that what you pay top dollars for today will drastically drop in value very soon. So why not get the most of what you have instead of just recklessly spending your hard earned money?

Although my example is a little extreme, you pretty much see a scenario like this everyday such as a couple wanting to buy the latest digital camera because the newer models have a higher spec even though what they currently have is perfectly fine for their needs. This can also be especially important for business people as time and time again I see people who would throw away or replace products that are perfectly usable just because they have not exceeded their current budget that was set aside for office materials. Try to get the most out of what you have and you’ll be surprised how much money you can often save because of it.

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