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October 8, 2009

The Penniless Fool

54933DFE2FB5A27DB40494D5B39Ok, I copied the subject-head from the “penny wise, pound foolish” mantra (beat me). On a serious note, I read something that caught my interest on MSN recently and the caption read: “8 Lottery millionaires become poor” and if by mere coincidence, I started seeing various stories talking about how people came into so much money and lost everything. Kind of crazy, Right? Wrong! We all come into money and lose it but it ultimately depends on how we perceive the money we come into. The only reason why these guys make news is because the money they made was huge relative to what an average person owns and the money kind of came to them on a platter of gold.

What about guys that kill themselves everyday to get money and put it into pocket filled with holes? What intuitively amazes me is that I was once this kind of guy; being wise with coins and being foolish with the big pounds. For example, I could work so hard and lose money because I was not properly informed; I am worse than the man that won the lottery and lost his money. Please, don’t ask me why? Anyway, I would tell you: the man that won the lottery did not have to work hard; he was doomed to lose the money – easy come, easy go. But (a big BUT!); a man that wakes up to work every 5.30am and gets back at 8.00pm minimum after going through a rigorous traffic regime, needs to re-evaluate himself and the way he/she spends money.

46F748FA2981705785468FD9E9F3DLet me give you a typical example of rational thinking and emotional thinking; this is a true story though; we were all in our office in VI when someone announced that there is a mini flat in VI for rent and it costs like 350K p.a. (this was 7 years ago). “What? That’s too much” was the consensus statement; “A very good mini flat on the mainland cost like 150K”. Well, I was curious so I asked the guy about the mini flat and asked him to take me there; it was situated in a beautiful estate with constant light and water; the parking lot was awesome and the caliber of cars I saw gave me an idea of the kinds of people that stayed there and best of all, it was a working distance to my office. I did not waste time; I sat down with my diary and pen and did the calculation:

I was a bachelor and this was the result; it would cost me a minimum of 312K per annum to transport myself to VI assuming there were no unwelcomed circumstances like accidents, theft, etc. It would cost me more than 150K to power my generator with fuel, I detested going to the well to fetch water, I have to park outside my parking space if I come late, security was questionable, I wake up at 5.00 am in order to get to the Island early, my car visits the mechanic every other Saturday and I spend nothing less than 5K, I hardly have time for myself not to talk of my fiancé then and the constant stress involved everyday was totally not worth it. I did not wait to finish my analysis before I told the landlady I was interested; it was definitely a no brainer.

Fortunately for me, the landlady was travelling to London the same night and asked me to pay a 100K, gave me the keys and collected the rest when she came back 6 months later. Every time, I remember this story, I told myself; “I would never follow the crowd and disperse things at face value”. I cannot start to tell you the amount of money I saved and not to talk about the less stress I encountered to get to work. We lose money almost every day by trying to save money. It’s not that I am always thinking rationally (far from it) but I realize that most emotional purchases I make are always wrong. The rationale behind every emotional purchase is that the “heart wants what it wants” (lol).

chinavasion-CVATX-HDD25R-1-new.jpg.thumb_240x240However, I recently encountered a product that met both rational and emotional thinking. It is the Mobile Moviz Recorder. Imagine, watching a match between Manchester United and Chelsea and you got called for an emergency meeting, I am sure you would miss it except you have a PVR Decoder. A PVR decoder is on the high side and it records up to 80 hours while the Mobile Moviz Recorder is quite moderate in price and records up to 300 hours.  The best part of the Mobile Moviz Recorder is that it is portable (just 2.5 inches) and mobile. You can transfer what you record on your laptop and show your colleagues and friends the highlights of the event. The beauty of it is that it can also act as a storage device for all your data because it has a 500GB space, Imagine losing that all important data because you cannot back it up.

The emotional part for me is that it contains 100 movies in it (you can add far more) with more than fifty Christian movies like “Facing the Giants”, “The Problem Women Battle”, “The Perfect Strange”, “Sex and the Vatican”, all the series of “Love Comes” and “Not Easily Broken” by T.D. Jakes. It also contains 2009 Hollywood movies, latest series, some exclusive documentaries like the Premier league; How Arsenal was created, etc.  They have movies you can hardly find anywhere. To get more feel on the movies, you can click HERE. Imagine, going to your friends place and seeing a program you love, with your Mobile Movie Recorder, you can easily record it and share it with your wife or colleagues. When I started using this device, I realize how indispensable this device is; the ability to focus on something else while you can record your favorite program. You can time-set the recording, pause it, to avoid ads, rewind and re-play. If you are a traveler, this is going to be your best friend. To know more about the Mobile Moviz Recorder, click HERE.

What can I say? I am sure you have learnt from the lottery winners that it is not really about acquiring wealth but maintaining the ones you have through avoiding subtle foxes that spoil the vine. It is important to evaluate what you buy; you may be spending more than you think. Information is quite critical at this age and a little research would make your life totally stress-free; dont be in a haste to acquire more when you have not fully maximized what you have. There is no difference between the rich fool and penniless fool; it’s just a matter of time before you see both of them for who they are (lol).  The Car Vacuum Cleaner is still available and there is serious competition for the keke POeT: However, there are plenty guys in it now so I would publish the first ten guys next week. To know more about Mobile Moviz Recorder and the Car Vacuum Cleaner, you may click HERE. Anyway, have a lovely week, if you work smart, you can then play hard.

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About Dipo Tepede

I am a Project Management coach. I specialize in making delegates pass any Project Management certification at first try. I successfully achieve this fit through practical application of the knowledge and integration of our Project Management eLearning school at www.pmtutor.org. Welcome to my world.....