I decided to go to the night market event that was taking place in Richmond as I had a family member who was a vendor in the food area and thought it would be interesting to see. For those who never been to a night market, it is basically an area with a bunch of different vendors selling goods. Most of the vendors are under tents.

A lot of people go with the thought that they will find some awesome deals on products and items as it will be way less compared to what you would pay at a regular store. From what I have seen, in some cases that is true, in other ways I think a lot of the items are knock offs or imitation products compared to something similar you would find at a traditional store. With that, it is more of a you get what you pay for situation I think.

Aside from that, a lot of people go simply for the atmosphere and to try out some food. I guess the night market is interesting, but I personally never seen how it is like some kind of bargain bin with a lot of awesome deals like many people imply.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

I was around the Metrotown area yesterday, which is large mall here in BC, as I had to go through that way to meet someone. In the midst of it all, there was a little incident on what appeared to be two kids/teenagers that stole something and as a result the security around the mall went after them.

At first I didn’t know what was going on as they were walking so calmly and then all of a sudden one of them dropped their drink and they both tried to run as a fast as they could. I actually thought they were just goofing around at first such as one of them making a derogatory comment and the other wanting to get back at him. But shortly after, security people began to pop out from various angles trying to go after them as if it was a planned ambush. One of them was actually stopped fairly calmly by a pedestrian who was two times the person’s size and the other one had to be chased further down.

Obviously I don’t know the exact story to the situation, but this reminds me on how a person who specifically worked in loss prevention security once told me that when it comes to shoplifting or stealing things even the most honest people get caught up in doing so simply because it looks so easy and that they can get away with it.

I think that is actually an important point when it comes to say business or making money in general. When it looks like there is an opportunity to profit on something that is clearly illegal/unethical in some way, for a lot of people if it looks like they can get away with it they will do it. For things like these I always remember the saying on how it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and a moment to kill it. Besides, I’m sure it is way more gratifying to earn something as well.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

There seems to be a lot of news roaming around about company acquisitions lately and how large companies are willing to spend a fortune to acquire an existing business. One example is the news about Microsoft willing to pay to $6 billion for a digital marketing company called Aquantive.

As a result I have been reading a lot of comments from people on the web who say that companies or people that have too much money completely lose their ability and sense to really sit down and evaluate on how much value something is really worth from a dollar perspective as they just purchase things that sound okay at a price that they think is fair.

Generally speaking, I guess this is true where when we have an abundance of something we tend to become more impulsive with our decision making process and at the same time take things for granted. When it comes to money specifically, this is not exclusive to say millionaires or the very wealthy, but even with everyday people such as having $50 in hand and thinking you have it so why not spend it on something like say dining out even though you had something prepared at home?

For myself, I think the key thing that has kept me from losing my sense of value when it comes to money is seeing it as more of a time investment rather than just a dollar figure. I’ve mentioned before in regards to learning about the value of a dollar and similarly I think seeing things from a time perspective really makes you think differently about money and how you spend it.

This might sound a little strange, but if you learn to value your time in a more objective way that can also help you when it comes to having a lot of money. As a result, it can also make you more responsible and productive as well with life in general.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

Today I simply bought some small items from the supermarket with another person and was kind of surprised when the cashier gave me my receipt along with this:

It was basically a piece of paper that had information on how I could evaluate the service that I received and as an incentive I would apparently get the chance to win $2000. The thing was that the person I was with didn’t get one of these as well, so I’m guessing this was a random thing.

For myself, I personally think the odds of winning are a little too low and so those incentives don’t really encourage me to fill it out. Instead, I know that in these cases a lot of companies use this to evaluate their employees and so I figured that I would take the time to give my honest feedback. It can get rather tedious at times and here is an example:

It took me about 10 minutes and basically it feels like one of those profiling quizzes. When I think about it, I often see all these advertisements online about taking surveys and making money from it. Some of them just seem like such a time waster and the reward is only say a $1 credit as you have to do a ton of them to get anything worthwhile. An important thing to keep in mind though is that in many cases the purpose of some the money making surveys that you see are solely to get your personal information which people sell to telemarketing companies. Of course it is not true for all of them, but in many cases it is and so I would normally be weary of them.

Hopefully the employees from the store I went to will get some positive feedbacks from their supervisors as a result of this and if I do happen to win anything then that would be all fine and dandy as well.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.

I personally think when it comes to money a lot of times people tend to do things that are more than they can realistically handle as it seems like the most noble or right thing to do. A good example would be say someone buying a car right when they become an adult as for many that is a symbol that you are successful financially even if they really can’t afford it in the long run.

Another example that is a little trickier is say wanting to live on your own right when you reach that age where you are free to do as you please. In a lot of cases if you are say living with your family, I’ve often seen parents encourage their kids to live at home in order to save enough money so that they can ease up any financial hardships and then move out when they are ready. While this may sound like the most logical thing to do on the surface, for many they simply go ahead and try to live on their own without a solid financial backing which in turn creates more obstacles. I guess the main reason to do something like this is that you don’t want to burden others and also for many it just seems like something you should do. Ironically, many times it ends up as the person goes back for help in a state which now requires more time or money to fix.

I usually dub situations like these as someone trying to be a hero with money. While it is great in wanting to be independent or say wanting to place yourself in a self-fulfilling situation, in my opinion your method in doing so shouldn’t result in you simply creating another hardship in a different way which in the end isn’t really solving anything. Why not jump into things when you are prepared to help avoid problems in the first place?

Even in other things such as your work, a person who knows their strengths, weaknesses and limitations are often the more successful people as they are able to apply their skills effectively. You can kind of use that same logic with money if you are one who tries to take on too many things when you really don’t have the proper foundation to do so. Be a hero with money if you can truly afford it, but otherwise I’d say there’s no shame in having to take the less glamorous route initially if you need to.

For blog updates subscribe to our RSS feed.