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BARGAIN DRIVEN BUYING Doubling
Your Income
Dream with me for a moment. What if you could effectively double your income? Do you think that would make a difference in your financial success? Of course it would. You would save hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands and unbelievably hundreds of thousands of dollars over an extended period. You could cut your overall expenses by 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% or more, depending only upon your persistence and ability. Just think what a difference that would make in your lifestyle. Imagine how much less you would have to work, how much earlier you could retire or reach financial independence, or simply how much more you could increase your standard of living. Can you do it? Sure you can, easily, just by changing the way you look at buying. Will you do it? That depends a lot on how rigid you are in your thinking. Some people are receptive to new ideas, others are driven to their grave by conventionality and look too critically at anything that deviates from the norm. You could hand them a check for a million dollars and they would hand it back, assuming there must be some kind of catch. Keep an open mind unless you want to miss opportunities and be sheared like the other sheep roaming the cityscapes and countryside’s of this world. Saving
Money Versus Earning Money First, you have to understand the difference between Earned Income and Saved Income. When you save money you effectively increase your income. You produce a high return while investing virtually nothing. It’s the risk free, easy way to make money. You jeopardize nothing. It’s free money. Making money doesn’t get much easier. As a bonus, the money you make is tax-free. You’ve already paid tax on the income you’re spending, so if you make money through discounting, no tax is due. If you earned in salary an equivalent sum in wages you would be required to pay social security tax, medicare tax, federal income tax and possibly state income tax and city tax, resulting in a significant reduction in the amount of money you’d actually get to keep. Then there’s a savings in the amount of sales tax you pay. You are able to reduce the amount of city, county and state sales tax you pay in direct proportion to the reduction in price you’re able to negotiate. If you pay $1,000 dollars instead of $2,000, you save $1,000. But, your savings extend much further, as might be the case in the following example: Cost Savings $1,000 Social Security & Medicare Tax 7.65% 77 Federal Income Tax 25% 250 State Income Tax 6% 60 State & Local Sales Tax 8% 80 Total Savings (Almost 50% More!!!!) $1,467 Obviously, the money earned through price reductions results in a much greater savings than an equal amount of wages would. You’d have to earn substantially more in taxable salary to equal a like amount of savings through discounting. Increasing the amount of income you earn generally requires a great deal more work. Discounting your purchases involves little more work than you’re already doing. It only requires a change in your philosophy and the ability to do some fun research. You can work harder or buy smarter. Which will you choose? Think about that next time you debate with yourself the merits of either working harder to make more money or simply learning to spend your money more judiciously. Consider the increased quality of life you might enjoy by working less. The human life span is limited. Unless you have the mindset of an Egyptian pharaoh, you can’t take what you have accumulated with you. Time is your most precious commodity. Saving money can be your key to hoarding more of this most important asset, while enjoying the same standard of living as your harder working time deprived associates. The
accumulation of wealth is the means to an end.
The things, tangible and intangible that it can buy, represent the
‘end’. If you can do an ‘end
run’ and find ways to acquire the same income producing assets and
‘things’ while spending and working less, your lifestyle is enhanced. You
can enjoy more of what life has to offer. Furthermore, with price reductions you earn a higher return, with no risk. What other investments or enterprises can you say that about? Most investments require a proportionate risk, but when you save money you gain a huge return for endangering none of your hard earned money. It’s the perfect investment, but so often overlooked by so many. Go to your stock broker and tell him that you would like
to put your money in an investment where you will earn a 50% plus return on your
money without any risk what so ever. Oh, and by the way, tell him you don’t
want to pay tax on it either. Let the hyena like laughter that follows serve as
a constant reminder of the advantage of saving money versus making money. How
We Buy
How do we typically buy something? First we develop a desire. We want that new home shown on Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famous, a shirt like Homer Simpson’s, an expensive sports car so that the opposite sex drools when they see us coming, a vacation in Bora Bora or a dead hunk of cow flesh seen advertised sizzling on the grill at ‘Charred Cows Are Us’. Then we act upon that desire by going out to plunk down our hard earned money for some quid pro quo. Pretty simple, we want it and we buy it, assuming it’s within our budget at the moment. And, even if it isn’t within our means, it’s no problemo. Many of us simply go into debt to gain that immediate gratification of a quick purchase. This further inflates the cost and further lessens our quality of life. At any given time we all have dozens and dozens of desires floating around in our conscious and subconscious minds. Our lists of wants are almost unlimited. We satisfy the smaller items right away and prioritize the larger ones for purchase just as soon as they become affordable or we can squeeze them onto our credit line. Basically, we have a desire and then we seek to fulfill it at the earliest possible moment. Reverse
Your Thinking Is there a better way? Yes, keep the desire; just defer the gratification until you can buy it at a discount. I call it ‘Bargain Driven Buying.’ Nearly everything can be purchased at a substantial discount. Almost everything you buy can eventually be purchased on sale, at wholesale or at fire sale prices if you are patient enough or clever enough to turn over a few stones. Virtually everything. Play a game. Start thinking of yourself as special, smarter or royalty of sorts if you like. You’re one of the ‘entitled’ people of this world, a prince or a princess. You deserve to buy everything you desire at an extraordinarily low price and you’re just stubborn enough to wait until you can. Everything from the simplest grocery item to your most expensive purchase can be bought at a reduced price. You simply have to flip flop your thinking. Rather than simply developing desires and immediately acting upon them, be patient and wait for them to go on sale. Most everything will. And if it doesn’t happen quite fast enough for you, do some research. Someone or something is usually offering it at ‘your price’ somewhere. So, instead of simply rushing out to make a purchase because you CAN afford it, hold off. Wait for it to go on sale or be offered by a seller that really needs a sale and will sacrifice price to make the transaction happen quickly. Or, if you’re in a bit of a hurry do your research and locate a flexible and anxious seller sooner. Think before you leap. Instead of just letting your desires guide yours purchases, let bargains drive your buying. Let value draw you to your purchase. Buy, but only buy at the right price. And if you’re anxious, don’t just sit around wishing and hoping. Start shaking the bushes. Start shopping in earnest until you find your bargain. Be
An Opportunist Seek out opportunities. Become an opportunist. It’s fun. It’s exciting. It makes you want to leap out of bed in the morning. When you begin to think like an opportunist, your closed eyes open and you see things you’ve never seen before. You see things that others don’t. Your mindset becomes attuned to value. The morning paper isn’t just a dry collection of yesterday’s events any longer. It is a veritable treasure map to opportunities just waiting to be claimed. You see good prices advertised. You see problems around the world that are breeding opportunity for those fortunate few that can see how to benefit from them. A poor economy often means good prices. A problem in society usually offers opportunities for buyers, problem solvers and investors. Sure, high-energy prices are bad for many, but not if you sell fuel efficient cars, can develop a fuel additive to extend mileage, or simply want a good price on a gas guzzling big tired all terrain monster. Crime is flagrant, but you can profit by creating better home protection devices. Foreclosures might be rampant, but that just breeds opportunity for the investor willing to buy and resell properties or the guy who has saved up to buy his dream home at a great price. A part of the economy might be in the doldrums, but that also means the prices you pay for products or services in that area just hit rock bottom. Problems always breed opportunities. When you are an opportunist, you see what others don’t. The glass is always half full. Information becomes your ally. The Internet is a never-ending source of possibilities. Billboards aren’t just eyesores on the landscape. Television commercials aren’t just annoyances between your evening soap operas. Window signs don’t just blend in with storefronts anymore. They’re all opportunities worth exploring. As an example, I’m a travel opportunist. I like to travel, so people often ask where I’m going next. I tell them all the same thing. I don’t know, whichever way the wind is blowing, wherever I can find a good bargain. The world’s a big place. I’ve got lots and lots of unfulfilled travel destinations and lots of favorite old ones in mind. I’ll eventually see them all, some again and again, but I’ll see them in ‘bargain driven’ order. I’ll go to a place on my long list that is making the best offer right now. When the Euro is strong and the Dollar is weak, it might be time to go to say South America or Eastern Europe where the U.S. Dollar still has a strong exchange rate. When the economy sucks in Argentina and Brazil, it might be time to do the tango in Buenos Aires or party all night in Rio at a fraction of the price back home. Before Eastern Europe catches up with the rest of the world, maybe Prague or Bucharest might be just the ticket to living like a king on a pauper’s budget. Besides, the world’s best beer and Dracula’s home aren’t bad consolation prizes. Or, Paris might sound great right about now, but it just so happens that you can get a half price airfare to Munich and a free hotel stay with your hotel club points. So you choose Munich, a great city anyway, and save Paris for another day, saving 75%. Or, maybe you really want to go to Rio, but the airfares are outrageous at this time, so you choose a complimentary flight to Buenos Aires with the frequent flyer points you’ve accumulated by taking advantage of free promotional offerings. It’s kind of fun letting fate choose your destination. Not only do you get to travel for half or more off, but you also get to play Russian roulette with the globe, letting bargains choose your journeys. And if you’re an investor, the ups and downs of various countries economies provide a never-ending array of investment possibilities. Opportunists see bargains waiting for their redemption. It’s like playing the card game ‘Concentration’; you mentally tag different bargain situations. Then you simply turn over enough cards to create a worthwhile buying opportunity. You learn to ‘think through’ the buying process. You trace back the lineage of the item you’re purchasing, understanding where it’s made, its’ approximate manufactured cost, its’ estimated wholesale value and retail value, and the various outlets it is offered for sale at. Then you choose the optimum place and time to make your purchase, taking all your research into consideration. You also learn to prioritize your time in direct proportion to the value of your purchase. When you learn to think consistently like an opportunist, your life changes. You find yourself buying most things at way below market value. Sometimes it’s only 25%, other times it’s 50% and sometimes it’s 80% or 90% off of normal retail. With diligence you can even ‘beat the system’ and many times get a 100% discount on many promotions meant to entice you into more lucrative buying. You might just easily double your effective income and accordingly double your disposable income...more>>>
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