How to live cheaply
My recent trip to taiwan, my friend was surprised.
I got to know her in shanghai, and her impression of me was I am a poor and really really struggling photographer.
She is right, I never thought i was rich.
But when I told her I bought a new camera for a job that needs higher resolution, she was shocked. She was even more shock when I told her the price.
"You actually are able to fork out $X?
She probably think my bank account will never have more than 10% of the price of the camera.
She has every reason to think that way.
My hair is unkept, let alone it being ever "out of shape", because there is none. My clothes are unbranded, unattractive and repeating (I wash them of course).
There was even once in a photo shoot, the editor, that never met me before and only spoke to me over the phone, thought my assitant was the photographer and I am the assistant.
You may think I might be insulted, but it's more like a funny experience to me than anything esle.
If my university days were ever useful, there is only one thing, and that is I learnt about "unneccsary value add"
You pay for what you do not need. You pay for what they make you WANT.
Eg. taking a bus from point A to B. You really just need a bus, reasonably safe, on time and cheap.
But then they will add air condition to the bus, maybe a TV with advertisements, sofa seats, etc etc...and then they charge you higher.
the same can be apply to clothes, computers, shoes, watches, cameras, handphones, food
Clothes- you only need them to cover your important area and to keep warm. Style is really unneccsary value add.
computers- you only need one that can run the programs that you really need. flat screen monitor, super fast ram (unless you do graphics processing), brand are all unneccsary value add.
Shoes- They are the last thing people will ever look when they look at you because they are so low. Just get something that can cover your feet. nobody actually care that much about the style of your shoes.
watch- i dun even wear one since i realize i can get the time on my cellphone.
cameras- the cheapest that meets what you really need. as a pro photographer, i only buy a new camera when the job requires me so. i dun go buy the most expensive camera with too much value add that i dun need.
handphones- these are cheap electronics made of less than 30gram of aluminium. phone makers make at least 900% profit from a new phone sold. (how much does 30g of aluminium costs? and production is mass produced) so stop paying for the CEO's big cars and houses.
Food- cheapest of the cheapest. know why there are more and more people going into F&B? because its the easiest to earn money from. a cup of coffee with 500ml of water and 10g of coffee powder can be sold between 0.70USD to USD5. they still earn if its 0.70 USD.
now i know its hard for many of us to do that, especially with all those advertisement campaigns. it's all in your mind. just follow the following steps and you can live cheaply and yet not feeling cheap.
1) When you want to buy something, first identify the raw materials of the object.
eg. cellphone is made of aluminium, clothes are made of cotton, casear salad is made of cabbages and carrots from a china farm, hairstyling is actually just using scissors to shorten your hair
2) determine the cost price of the raw materials. eg. a phone weighs about 30g of aluminium. how much does 30g of aluminium costs?
3) then add some money for the value add that you really need. eg. after the phone company buys the aluminium, they need to cast the shape, program it, transport to a shop..etc etc all those are the neccsary value add that you need to include
4) factor in mass production economics of scale. meaning you save more costs when you produce in bulk.
5) decide on a price
6) if your price is much lower than the price they give, you are looking at wrong product with too much unneccsary value add. Look for another product.
If you are a business man yourself, you will know how to arrive at this figure even easier. and you will be surprised how much more you are paying for unneccsary stuff.
because you are probably thinking of how to make your customers pay for unneccsary stuff too.
Once you reach this state of "enlightenment", you are live cheaply without feeling cheap.
Good luck
I got to know her in shanghai, and her impression of me was I am a poor and really really struggling photographer.
She is right, I never thought i was rich.
But when I told her I bought a new camera for a job that needs higher resolution, she was shocked. She was even more shock when I told her the price.
"You actually are able to fork out $X?
She probably think my bank account will never have more than 10% of the price of the camera.
She has every reason to think that way.
My hair is unkept, let alone it being ever "out of shape", because there is none. My clothes are unbranded, unattractive and repeating (I wash them of course).
There was even once in a photo shoot, the editor, that never met me before and only spoke to me over the phone, thought my assitant was the photographer and I am the assistant.
You may think I might be insulted, but it's more like a funny experience to me than anything esle.
If my university days were ever useful, there is only one thing, and that is I learnt about "unneccsary value add"
You pay for what you do not need. You pay for what they make you WANT.
Eg. taking a bus from point A to B. You really just need a bus, reasonably safe, on time and cheap.
But then they will add air condition to the bus, maybe a TV with advertisements, sofa seats, etc etc...and then they charge you higher.
the same can be apply to clothes, computers, shoes, watches, cameras, handphones, food
Clothes- you only need them to cover your important area and to keep warm. Style is really unneccsary value add.
computers- you only need one that can run the programs that you really need. flat screen monitor, super fast ram (unless you do graphics processing), brand are all unneccsary value add.
Shoes- They are the last thing people will ever look when they look at you because they are so low. Just get something that can cover your feet. nobody actually care that much about the style of your shoes.
watch- i dun even wear one since i realize i can get the time on my cellphone.
cameras- the cheapest that meets what you really need. as a pro photographer, i only buy a new camera when the job requires me so. i dun go buy the most expensive camera with too much value add that i dun need.
handphones- these are cheap electronics made of less than 30gram of aluminium. phone makers make at least 900% profit from a new phone sold. (how much does 30g of aluminium costs? and production is mass produced) so stop paying for the CEO's big cars and houses.
Food- cheapest of the cheapest. know why there are more and more people going into F&B? because its the easiest to earn money from. a cup of coffee with 500ml of water and 10g of coffee powder can be sold between 0.70USD to USD5. they still earn if its 0.70 USD.
now i know its hard for many of us to do that, especially with all those advertisement campaigns. it's all in your mind. just follow the following steps and you can live cheaply and yet not feeling cheap.
1) When you want to buy something, first identify the raw materials of the object.
eg. cellphone is made of aluminium, clothes are made of cotton, casear salad is made of cabbages and carrots from a china farm, hairstyling is actually just using scissors to shorten your hair
2) determine the cost price of the raw materials. eg. a phone weighs about 30g of aluminium. how much does 30g of aluminium costs?
3) then add some money for the value add that you really need. eg. after the phone company buys the aluminium, they need to cast the shape, program it, transport to a shop..etc etc all those are the neccsary value add that you need to include
4) factor in mass production economics of scale. meaning you save more costs when you produce in bulk.
5) decide on a price
6) if your price is much lower than the price they give, you are looking at wrong product with too much unneccsary value add. Look for another product.
If you are a business man yourself, you will know how to arrive at this figure even easier. and you will be surprised how much more you are paying for unneccsary stuff.
because you are probably thinking of how to make your customers pay for unneccsary stuff too.
Once you reach this state of "enlightenment", you are live cheaply without feeling cheap.
Good luck
posted by rolento @ 12:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home