Bargain Finder Secrets
Would you like to be a bargain finder? Wouldn't it be fun
to be one of those people that always finds a good deal? You
can start by learning the secrets of opportunism.
For example, did you know that you can eat a wider variety
of fruit than your neighbor, and spend only half as much to do
so? How? By buying fruit in season, when it is at the lowest
price. As a bonus, it is also of the highest quality at these
times. This is opportunism.
You'll notice that this means not always getting exactly what
you want when you want it, but you get more variety this way,
and you spend much less. You go with the flow. If oranges are
cheap, you'll be eating oranges. If apples are in season, you'll
be eating apples. Whatever the case, you'll always be finding
bargains.
You don't have to eat things you don't like or deny yourself
pleasure. You just shop for those things that you like among
those that are cheaper now. There will be other, different, great
deals next week or next month. Unless you are extremely picky
about what you eat, you'll almost always find delicious foods
that you like on sale.
This is the premise of opportunism - that you get more by
going with the flow. A true bargain finder gets more variety
in the long run, and more for the money. This can be applied
to many areas of life.
Some Bargain Finder Examples
Before I went to Ecuador a few years ago, there were many
interesting places I wanted to go. I chose Ecuador because it
was a thousand dollars less to go there than to any other country.
I had a fantastic time for a month for $1040 (including airfare).
I also met the most wonderful woman I know there, and eventually
married her, so you never know what riches you'll find when you
go with the flow.
My wife and I go to the movies here in Tucson on Tuesdays,
when we can get in for $2.00 each. Others are paying $8.75 a
couple miles away. What are they getting by paying four times
as much? They get to see the movie six weeks earlier. The movies
don't change in those six weeks, by the way, and enough friends
have seen them by then to let us know if they're good or not.
Opportunism means not paying more unless you are getting more.
It also means making honest choices. Will you actually enjoy
that movie more by seeing it now? More than you'll enjoy the
FOUR movies you can see in it's place? Do you have to take that
fishing trip now? If you're planning to take both a fishing trip
and a gambling trip, why not do each when it's cheapest?
When William Danko and Thomas Stanley wrote "The Millionaire
Next Door," they found that MOST millionaires bought used
cars. They bought BMWs and Mercedes, not old Ford Pintos, but
the lesson was clear: They understand opportunity. Cars often
lose half of their value in the first three years, but they're
not half used-up, are they? Is it worth an extra $6,000 to say
you have a new car (And you will have to tell people, since it's
hard to tell a three-year-old car from a new one)?
To be an opportunist doesn't mean just settling for whatever
is easy and cheap to get in life. We all have our areas that
are more important to us. If you really love those $15 cigars,
why not buy them? On the other hand, if you really can't tell
the difference between the $5 and 50 wine, why not buy the former?
Opportunism is one of the keys to being a true bargain finder.
|
