Would you ever pretend to be poor if you really weren’t? That was an interesting question that I heard today. Surprisingly a lot of people said yes as they prefer not to draw all the attention that having a lot of money usually attracts. The funny thing too was that some said by pretending to be poor you can often get better deals as people don’t feel that they can get a lot of money out of you to up-sell you on various things. So instead they simply present with you the bare-bone necessities on many things.

That is kind of funny I thought as I think it would be the opposite where if many people think that you have a lot of money they will go out of their way to try and give you better deals in hopes that you will keep returning to them with more odds that you will make big purchases with them. I suppose it comes down to what your local community is like. For example, I’m sure in a more populated area everyone will try to appease what appears to be a wealthier person versus a more rural area, so to speak.

Today I got to do something that was kind of fun. Recently I was asked if I wanted to talk about some finance issues on a new talk show of sort for an upcoming 24hr news network here called Global News: BC 1. Apparently they were booking a lot of guests for various topics as well as it seems like they are currently experimenting on the exact type of topics they would like to cover before launching.

It was kind of neat visiting the studio as it is currently still being set up. Makes me really curious in wondering how everything will look in the end. I essentially went in and talked about topics ranging from TFSA’s, how people make money online with various publisher and affiliate programs as well as saving money on things such a tax software where many companies offer the same service free online.

An interesting note when I was given a quick tour of the place, it seemed like they are definitely preparing for people who will be staying at that building for a long time considering it is 24 hr news network. For example, it seems like they have a full fledged kitchen area with staff to cater to everyone who is staying for the day.

Seems like a good addition for people here as it will provide a platform to talk about various issues. I did feel a little weird when they dubbed me as the “money man.” Makes me sound like I am some venture capitalist looking to buy people out or something. All in good fun though while talking about serious topics.

While looking for some of the services that may be necessary in starting the business of course as mentioned some items such as lawyer fees are over the roof. However, I always remember one thing and that is if you start to look outside of the main city areas you can at times find the exact same service for less. Reason being in many cases is pretty simple as things such as rent is more expensive in the busier areas and so people naturally need to charge more to make up for it.

In many ways it is like shopping for a place to live as you can have the exact same house except depending on where it is the price can be a lot cheaper based on how popular the area itself is. This can translate to hundreds if not thousand of dollars on savings as well. Definitely a factor that you should look into as well if yo are looking to save as much money as possible while still wanting to find quality products or services.

Happy new years everyone. It seems like here there is a lot of fees are going up when it comes to provincial stuff such as income taxes and even various things like pubic transportation getting more expensive. Of course this has a lot of people saying how that isn’t good for the economy and such. One thing that this made me think of is the public transportation price and how I remember a quote before of someone saying compared to a car you are getting a bargain for what you pay. Therefore the small increase shouldn’t matter much.

It made me think because if you are trying to lure people into using it more from a financial point of view isn’t it better to make it a lot cheaper as opposed to just a little? I know the argument is usually that people are willing to pay so many dollars for another thing anyways so you would think they shouldn’t be apprehensive if you price it similar except a bit cheaper. I personally think that only really works if what you offer is in a sense exactly the same thing. Example, people that run a barber shop where if everyone else is charging $10 per cut then realistically you can say you can undercut it by just a little. However, saying like because people are willing to pay $12 to watch one movie in the theatres means that people should be contempt to pay $10 to order one movie on their TV as it is a bargain in comparison doesn’t work the same I think.

I would be inclined to say there you would need to make it a lot cheaper as it is not the same. Either way guess people will have to adapt to the increases since these are more of an essential service of sort as opposed a non essential.

It’s that time again where everyone starts to make new years resolutions. Of course in most cases people don’t actually follow through with them and one thing I noticed more this year is actual products and services that are designed to help people follow through with their resolution. Example, if you are someone buying a gym membership then you will be paying for someone to make sure that you will actually go to the gym.

Guess with that in mind the no brainer way to save money in the new years is to make a goal/resolution that you will actually be self motivated and passionate about in following through with. I usually use the new years to think of things where I can build something from nothing so to speak. That way it’s more of an exercise of time and creativity as opposed to trying to go against something as if it is a chore. Whatever it is you choose you should have fun with it too I say.