I work with a fair number of younger people. Under 45.  They have a tendency that I just can not figure out.  Just because something is ON SALE does NOT mean that you have to BUY it!!!!

I will give you two examples. One is my ex-son-in-law. (I still like the guy) It was Thanksgiving and we needed a small tool to help with stitching up the turkey. We headed to the tool section of the local Canadian Tire store.  (Guy heaven) We found what we were looking for and were heading back to the cashier when all of a sudden my son-in-law was gone.  I stopped and looked around. He was back a few aisles, standing in front of a display of tile cutting saws. I went back and asked what he was looking at.

“These saws are ON SALE for 50% off!  We should buy one!”  We are both handymen and have a lot of tools and I knew he had a tile saw.  “We both have one, so why would we buy another one??” I asked.  “They are 50% off!!  What a deal!” he exclaimed.  “We could save over $50.00!”  That was where he lost me.  I was silent till he started to reach for a box.

“Whoa there son!  What are you doing?” “I am going to buy one” he said.  “Not so fast!” I said.  “Does the one you have still work?” I asked.  “Yes” he responded.  “So why do you need another one?”  “Because I can save $50.00!” he said excitedly.  “Wait a minute!”  I said.  “But you will have to take more than that out of your wallet to get the saw.  You’re not walking out of here with the saw, and an extra $50.00 in your wallet.  How does this put you financially ahead??!!”  I was rewarded with a blank look.

JUST BECAUSE IT SAYS SAVE 50% DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL WALK OUT WITH MORE MONEY THAN YOU CAME IN WITH!!

Maybe, because I grew up with parents that believed that SAVING was almost a religion, that I am less affected by mass Marketing.  But I can honestly say, I have never bought anything, no matter the saving percentage, where I wound up having more money than before I bought it. I am happy to say this experience did rub off on the boy at least a little bit.

A similar situation happened the other day. A young friend of mine came rushing into the office to show me his latest purchase.  ‘I just bought 2 more trail cameras!  And I only paid 25$ for the pair!!”  Deja Vue.  I didn’t say anything at the time, he was excited.  But I will get him to read this Post.

Never in the history of man have we ever been bombarded with the amount of sophisticated, mind bending, advertising, that we have today. It is everywhere!! Writing this post is one of the few places where I am not interrupted by some advert.  I love to play Spyder Solitaire in my spare time. There are adds on the side and bottom of the screen, constantly.  Then every few minutes you get interrupted by a 15 to 30 second video add.  I could pay to get rid of the adds.  But Microsoft made a net income of about $88,100,000,000 US last year. (That’s more than I made) I am not hurting my financial standing by giving them money NOT to see adds.  I am not contributing my hard earned $2.99 a month to a company that makes BILLIONs of dollars a year.  I can honestly say I have NEVER bought anything from those adds.

But $2.99 isn’t worth worrying about.  Here a challenge.  Add up all those “not worth worrying about” expenses you pay each month, then multiply that total by 12.  Now compare that to how much you are putting into an investment (Savings Acct, RRSP, TFSA or GIC) every month.  Which is more???