This was kind of funny as just the other day a person asked me how much I paid for a specific desk and I said about $40. She then mentioned that she was able to get it for $30 and was so happy to be able to finally beat me in terms of being able to save more money for an item. It’s all in good fun though.

While I usually have friendly competitions with people in other things as a way for us to try and bring out the best in each other, I just thought how it was kind of strange to use that same train of thought when it comes to saving money. At the same time, I guess that’s one way you can make yourself more self conscience when it comes to your money.

Maybe I’ll have a “Let’s see how much you can buy for $10” type of competition with someone in the future and see what comes out of that. Although, it better not turn out into something like a person buying a gazillion one cent gummy bears…….

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I happened to pass by a gas station today that had a sign advertising a credit card with a 5% cashback option. While there was probably a catch since I whizzed by the advertisement sign, I was with another person who made a comment on how he felt that credit card rewards with points such as airmiles are a waste in comparison.

I personally prefer cashback options, although from a value point of view in most cases the reward options you receive seems to be almost inline with each other. The only main difference I see is that with one option you are forced to get something that you don’t necessarily want.

One thing is for sure though, I hate having to pay for those premium reward options and would usually avoid them if they require any kind of additional fee.

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I was watching this clip about a 15 year old singer from the Philippines named Charice Pempengco who appeared on the Oprah show recently. This is one of those very few moments in life where I was just dumbfounded as the person’s vocal skills seemed to be so beyond the norm for a person at that age.

Apparently she started getting known on a more international scale as a result of one of her performances being posted on YouTube. I was able to find a recording of the segment she recently appeared in as well which you can see here.

Aside from the performance, the thing that this story made me think of is online marketing where in this case YouTube was the vehicle. I always like to tell people, especially the old school thinkers, on how the Internet is like the great equalizer that gives a lot of smaller people a chance to play on the same field as a very well established figure or business.

This was sure a great example of that I thought where if you have something good there are so many things you can do nowadays to equally put the spotlight on yourself without putting a hole in your wallet. That’s some incredible talent though huh?

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In recent news here it appears that Walmart has finally found a location to open up a store in the Vancouver area. The company tried to open up a store here before with a lot of people objecting to it as they felt it would harm the local community such as an increase of air pollution and the possibility of small businesses being forced to close.

It was announced recently that they are going to be taking over the building of an existing Costco wholesale business at Grandview Hwy as the company is planning to relocate to a different location. The Walmart store is set to open sometime near 2009 and is suppose to create hundreds of new jobs. People can’t really argue about the location here either now as it is a busy commercial area as it is.

What is really interesting to me is that just a few blocks away from this location is a supermarket called The Real Canadian Superstore that has been there for ages and is where I normally shop a lot. I’m one of those people who have read the stories on how Walmarts in the US have been able to put companies like these out of business as everyone wants everything cheaper. As a result, it almost becomes as if Walmart is the economy afterwards as people work and purchase goods from it with no one else to really go to.

I’m personally one of the more open minded people in this situation though. I can definitely see how this could have a negative impact as while I’m sure it will enable a lot of people to buy goods for cheaper, in the long run a company with that much control can pretty much dictate things such as wage standards or making it very difficult for local suppliers to compete with others who use cheaper labor.

At the same time, I can’t deny that this has got to be one of the most prolific examples of capitalism as they pretty much earned their success from ground up. If you think about it, they are only really giving what the majority of people want as in the end the consumers control who comes out at the top.

Honestly though, they do have Walmart stores in other cities here within the province and price wise it seems to be on par with a lot of other businesses. Should be interesting to see how this develops.

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There is an interesting story that popped up around here about a 26 year old real estate agent named Robert Zoost who markets himself as a more high-end realtor while being portrayed as a “Million Dollar Man” so to speak. Even on his site there is a line stating “Marketing Properties from $1,000,000.00 - $50,000,000.00”.

Initially to a lot of people from the outside, including the media, painted him as a real estate superstar. Interestingly enough, his past has been slowly popping up due to various events, including lawsuits against him, and it is not a pretty one at all from a financial point of view it seems. There were occasions where he received advanced commission checks, well into the five figure ranges, while being hounded to repay various financial debts to multiple parties.

There were two instances that caught my attention where one of his former girlfriend apparently leased a cell phone for him which he was suppose to pay her back for. On top of that, he drove a luxury Mercedes Benz, to help his image I’m guessing, and the car happened to have been purchased and owned by a different girlfriend mainly due to his request (Based on what I read).

That just made me think of the parasitic style type of lifestyle that a lot of people indulge in at the expense of others. Isn’t that usually the case where people who constantly feel the need to flaunt about their vast riches are not all that they appear to be? I actually have experience lending a person a lot of money and resources as well. While getting your money back can be a real pain, it sure taught me a lot about the personality patterns and actions of people like that to avoid them.

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