It’s definitely starting to get hot around here and of course that means most of us need something to drink to keep us hydrated. One of my friends today didn’t really anticipate the hot weather and while he went out walking during his lunch break the thirst got to him and so he decided to buy a beverage. Of all places, he decided to go into a McDonald’s and bought a large pop. That costed him about $2 and considering it is very watered down with a lot of ice it isn’t exactly a great deal.

I usually try to avoid going to places like that with sole intent to only buy a drink as it just doesn’t feel right like with the example above where I can buy say 4 litres of pop for that same price or even say 12 cans of it. I guess during the summer this is definitely true if you say drink a lot of bottled water as well. You would pay about $1 just for one normally at a store or you can go buy a bulk of say 20+ for about $5. It sounds very small, but it can definitely add up especially during these times.

Of course, that doesn’t mean if you are say going to a restaurant that you should necessarily bring your own can of soda or something. However, during the summer it can definitely be a good general throughout the day thing that can help you to save money.

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It felt like a déjà vu day yesterday as a similar past event occurred in regards to a person asking for money from her friends for a gambling debt. In fact, it was the exact same person that I posted about a little over a year ago in regards to lending money to people when it comes to self-inflicting gambling debts. The story was pretty similar and once again she was denied.

In my opinion, this is a classic example on how just giving people money who are bad or irresponsible with it in the first place isn’t going to solve the problem in the long run as there is a bigger aspect in their life that they need to deal with first. Speaking for myself, I’ve had my fair share of simply giving people money who say that they desperately need it as a result of doing something dumb such as spending so much on non essentials that they don’t have anything left for the true important things. I can honestly say in every case the person never got better and they simply kept pestering the people they knew for more.

I think it comes down to mostly respecting and truly appreciating what you already have and is what I try to tell people who ask for help. With that mentality you are less likely to make impulsive decisions based simply on your urges that could impact you in an extremely negative way. I guess I can use the lottery as an example, which many people participate in. If you are for the most part positive about your life then playing the lottery can be one of those why not type of things where if you win then great. However, if you played it because you think your life is the pits and that this will give you everything that you need to be happy you are just setting yourself up for failure and disappointment in more ways than one.

From my experience, aiding a person with financial difficulties in that type of way is a lot more effective in the long run as once they change their attitude they will change their outcome as well.

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A funny thing happened today where I was talking to a person in regards to ways in establishing a pricing structure for one’s products or services. The real interesting part was that when he established a base price for his service, he knew that it was a fair market rate and all. When it came to a very large project that required a lot of time and work, he would be reluctant in wanting to fully bill a person for it as anything over say $3000 at once just seems like so much money and that he was uncomfortable in dealing with that much money at once.

When I think about it a bit, I guess this is one of those little things that subconsciously affects you and your ability to deal with money in terms of managing and making it. Similar to speaking in front of a large group of people, if you believe that speaking in-front of three people is a lot then imagine trying to present to an audience of a hundred. Now I guess the main question is just exactly how can one get used to it if they have never say dealt with an incredibly large sum of money in terms of actually owning that much before right?

Like always, you have to start from somewhere. I suppose for myself getting comfortable with large dollar figures was mostly due to me being a money saver starting as a child and people trying to imply to me that a certain figure was a lot when it seemed “normal” to me. Even looking at it from an essential living perspective as well where a house could be say $500,000 just shows me that in comparison $10,000 is nothing to be intimidated about or that it is somehow such a ridiculous number that you won’t ever have that much. In the end, those types of factors personally raise my standards on what is a lot and what is not. The more comfortable you are with it the better it will be I’d say.

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I am going to be building a new computer system this week and decided to build it myself mostly for fun and figured I would save money doing so anyways. Now obviously to do so that would mean I would have to buy the computer parts and software.

I guess most people are familiar with buying computer parts and software from a store in the traditional sense as it comes in a retail package. Most often for a lot of computer parts you can buy OEM versions of that same product, which stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. In most cases the product you would be getting is the same as the one you would buy in a retail package except for this you are mainly getting the product without the packaging.

I guess the best example would be buying say an operating system. For example, if you were to buy a full retail version of Windows Vista Ultimate here, it can be found on average for about $499.99. In comparison, an OEM version can be bought for about $250. That is quite a substantial difference. Similarly, a keyboard that I would see for say $20 would cost about $10 if you bought the OEM version. Of course you must be asking that there must be a catch and there is indeed.

With OEM products for computer parts they are suppose to be sold with the intent that the person is building a new computer system. Like with the operating system, the vendor is selling it to the company for a cheap price as they assume they are using them to build a lot of say pre-made computer systems. It makes sense too if you think about it as why would you want all of that packaging if you were building a lot of systems? Even if you are just building one computer system as a consumer you can still usually buy OEM parts from companies.

The only other catch is in regards to some software products where the OEM versions actually don’t have all of the features compared to its full retail versions. Because of that, it is important to do your research still. At the same time, not everything has an OEM version. While this may be old news for a lot of the more savvy computer users out there, if you happen to be the complete opposite and are looking to get a new computer system this is definitely a good thing to look into and research about to save money. I’m sure you can find at least one person who is good with technology around your networking circle as well if you need help.

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I was recently talking to a couple who ran their own small business and due to the nature of it they mentioned that if they stopped working they would lose a lot of money which is a big reason why they don’t really take long vacation trips to say other countries. They then brought up an interesting point mentioning that many people take these long vacation trips and spend so much money while they are there. By the time they get back, they have pretty much placed themselves in a money crunching situation and on top of that they lost money by not working. Basically, while it is fun and relaxing, they mentioned how it is like a car where so many people buy one when really it ends up being an extreme money drainer for a person who is already tight on funds. Therefore, they will only take one when they are truly in an ideal position to do so.

I thought that was an interesting perspective about the topic and is something that everyone probably has some kind of experience with. On the other side I guess a big point on why people would take a long vacation is so that you don’t go crazy from working too much as if you are say stressed out then you won’t be in a position to do a good job anymore in what it is that you do. For myself, the last time I went on a really long vacation trip was with my family when I was still a kid. Come to think of it, I’ve never really been on a long vacation trip, say two weeks, since then as when it comes to my professional life I’ve honestly never been to a point where I just want to get away from it all as enjoy what I do.

From a financial point of view, just thinking about it I guess it can be true where a lot of people take these long and luxurious trips even though they can’t really afford it as I suppose it is easier to justify since one’s health and well being is usually the reason attached to doing so. For myself when it comes to buying or spending money on things in general that are not within a necessity category, I personally never go with the bare minimum or just getting by approach. So if I was to go on say a long vacation and let’s say the tickets were $1500 both ways and with maybe $2000 in spending money, I wouldn’t go unless I had say an extra $6000 floating around in my spare funds account as that really makes sure that I can truly afford it. I mean, if you are truly doing it for fun and relaxation then make sure you won’t be coming back with a boulder strapped around your leg. I think everyday should feel like a vacation where you get to enjoy it.

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