Sunday, September 24, 2017

Looking For a Great Deal?

We all love getting a bargain.

Anytime we find a great price, however, we also have to ask ourselves, "At what price?"

That may sound like a contradiction, until you think about what the question entails.

The "price" includes more than dollars and cents on the label.

There is always "opportunity cost."



Even if you have the funds to afford two dozen pairs of shoes, you are still choosing to spend time shopping for shoes rather than playing tennis or eating ice cream.

Time is a valuable commodity, one which for most Americans is actually more precious than money, at least to some degree.  A million dollars to add five minutes to your life might not seem worth it, but five cents to add five years would be a great value.

And buying a dozen pairs of shoes also means that when the time comes to wear the shoes, you have to spend more time late selecting the right pair for that occasion, which is why many of us choose voluntarily to simplify our lives with fewer material possessions as we mature.

Of course, we don't want to get carried away.

When I was 21 years-old and had spent a lot of time meditating, I got a bit carried away on all this, selling my beloved Fiat Spyder shortly after finally making the last payment and giving away my favorite jacket to someone who complimented it.



This might have been how Jesus lived, and I have to say it brought a certain inner peace, but it also might have been the result of smoking too much weed.

In any case, I came to a more economically rational perspective after combining upper division religion classes with core business classes required to earn a Bachelor's degree in Economics.

Economics includes topics that apply throughout our lives just as certainly as karma and gravity.

Supply and demand dictate the price we pay, even if competing goods and services essentially bring the same result.

Consider a pair of Air Jordans versus a pair of generic high tops from Target.  Depending on the shape of your feet, either might be comfortable, and they basically serve the purpose of protecting your feet during a basketball game...or whatever else you do in them, if you don't play basketball.



Will Air Jordans last longer?

Maybe.  Then again, last year I finally wore out hiking shoes I bought at KMart in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1977.  The waffle-stomper soles came apart from the leather uppers, but only after 39 years of utility trudging through snow or hiking.

Of course, sometimes the product serves a different niche purpose.  I now primarily wear Skechers Shape-Ups, even though they cost more and have become increasingly difficult to find the government ruled Skechers ads made unsubstantiated health claims.

Skechers happen to fit my feet perfectly, and since I started wearing Shape-Ups, I have found myself at the chiropractor less often for strained back muscles. Considering each chiropractor visit costs about the same "price" as a pair of walking shoes, I'd call that a health benefit.

By choosing one option, you sometimes must preclude choosing all others for that particular decision cycle.  This is particularly true for high ticket items like cars or houses but also applies on limited consumption items like a dinner choice between barbecued ribs or wienerschnitzel.



This type of binary choice is actually the basis for all computer calculations.

Computers must calculate the answer to thousands of yes or no questions (actually ones or zeroes) to come to what might seem to us to be an instantaneous answer.

This is more apparent if you dealt with primitive punched card computers in the early 1970's.  I often look back at those Basic classes at Golden West College and wonder how I missed the potential of the micro computer industry that my contemporaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs could see so clearly.

It just seemed like a bulky machine that filled a room which including input and output time couldn't do math as fast as I could do it in my head could never possibly be miniaturized to a point of doing anything substantial.

Our smart phones can simply calculate answers to yes/no questions at such a fast pace that it seems like the answer is instantaneous and coming from a human-sounding voice.



From what I can tell, many people now trust whatever Siri (or another computer program) says, even it if it is what we called in the early days of computers GIGO (garbage in, garbage out).

In other words, the answers are only as good as what computer programmers --- and increasingly these days google and Apple curators --- choose to make most relevant to you based on their personal biases or Black Ops Advertising.

As humans, we have the capability of taking in huge amounts of information to arrive at the best solution, when we know all factors under consideration.

To reach the best decisions, we must know what is available as well as what will make us happy.  The more we know about each of these areas, the better will be the decision we can reach.

There is so much changing information flooding through constantly, however, that it is impossible to take it all in, so our brains opt for selective perception, limiting what we see and hear to what is most relevant to our own inner code.




Philosophically, that is why individuals undergoing the exact same circumstances can have totally different interpretations of what they experience.  With infinite potential interpretations of countless perceptible stimuli, we can each interpret the same circumstances as a tragedy, comedy, drama, heaven or hell.

Wow, I've really gotten off the topic this time.

Bottom line: if you want the best possible vacation, don't set an artificially low budget for yourself.

To paraphrase something my dad said frequently, the quality of the experience will be remembered long after price is forgotten.

I am happy to provide as many possibilities that fit your parameters as you desire, backed up by specific details pro and con that can help you make an informed decision, but only you can decide what price you are willing to pay, both in terms of the amount paid as well as what you will give up.



I have always treated my clients' targeted budgets with great deference, but I have come to the conclusion that my first three recommendations will always include at least one that is perfect for you based on your personal profile and other parameters, even if it totally blows up the budget which I realize might have been reached after perusing what often are totally misleading lead rates.

As to which choice I personally think will suit you best, there are usually obvious clues --- like the fact that I recommended one to you first and added this one is perfect for you! --- but the final decision is always yours.

And sometimes, that means the best possible choice is simply outside of your comfort range.

If that turns out to be the case and you book a less expensive option, remember the rationalizations of that decision when you take that voyage, and make the best of your cruise not based on what the ideal might have been if you stretched your budget but on where you happen to be in the present.

Then again, the "deal of the century" comes along once or twice a week (and far more often sometimes, like right now in the Caribbean if you want to travel between now and Thanksgiving to that storm-battered region), but that is irrelevant if you have neither the time to go during the week the deal is offered or have no interest in the itinerary.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

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