Items filtered by date: October 2011
Buying versus being sold
Do you know what a good salesman and a bad salesman have in common?
Sure you do. They both want to sell you something.
It doesn’t matter what they’re selling, they both want you to buy something from them so they can earn their commission. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” as Mr. Seinfeld would say, as long as you know you’re being sold something.
There’s the rub. In our everyday life, we usually know when someone is doing their job and selling us something. We recognize what’s going on when the cute clerk at the perfume counter at holiday time is pitching the most expensive fragrance or the talkative guy that greets us at an auto dealership starts in on the prestige factor of the car he’s leaning on. We’ve all had lots of experience recognizing those kinds of situations, and let’s face it, we expect it and often enjoy the interaction. After all, if we weren’t inclined to buy whatever is being represented by the salesperson, we wouldn’t put ourselves in the situation.
Saving for beach time
I like to drive a nice car.
Whether for comfort or status, lots of people feel the same way.
But the one reason none of us have for having a nice car is that it’s a good investment.
It’s not an investment. It’s an expense.
When you’re done with your nice car, you might feel good about the experience but the reality is that you paid for that good feeling.
The question that many of us don’t want to think about is “How much are we paying for that good feeling?” And what that expense adds up to over time. A follow-up question might be “Is it possible to have the same feeling at less expense?” To that question, the answer is yes.
