Don’t just read this and think of a few things. Take the time to actually write it all down. Review your bank statements if you have to, in order to remember and include everything.
Now go through the list, and carefully consider each item. Take the most time on the big items – past, present and future possibilities. If your timeshare on the beach is worth half what you paid, costs $1,000 per year in expenses, and is rarely used, you need to learn from that – not to punish yourself, but to have a richer life.
If you think honestly about the number of times you will use that Recreational Vehicle, and the cost, it may be $250 for each day of use. That’s okay if that is worth it to you, but maybe you really would enjoy $100 hotels more. Or maybe you can rent an RV for less overall cost, thus freeing up money for other important goals.
You see, saving money isn’t about sacrifice. We all are aware of the scrooges in life that pinch their pennies, bank the savings, and then do nothing with it. The point should be to save money in one area of life so you can use it in ways that make your whole life richer.
Suppose you notice you’re spending $8 per month on subscriptions to magazine you don’t read, or on insurance for a motorcycle you almost never ride? Cancel the subscriptions or sell the
motorcycle, and what have you lost? Is it a big deal? What will that $8 get you instead?
- Bank it for ten years, and use the $1200 to take a second honeymoon.
- Use it to pay for a day off work once a year, to spend with the kids.
- Invest it, to have an extra $50 per month during your retirement years.
- Buy six good books a year, to learn something new.
- Make banana splits for the family once a month.
- Give $100 per year to a worthy cause.
$8 per month can do a lot if used wisely. Imagine what you could do if you stopped wasting $200 per month. That’s why it is so important to discover what you really want – and what you don’t want. This is one of the most intelligent ways to save money.
]]>Whether or not the application will take off is yet to be seen, but regardless of the success, or lack thereof, that this new app. will have, it’s very interesting to see Burger King making such a strong move into the world of Facebook as a means to reach its target customer base.
The group Burger King is targeting, the tweens through twenty-somethings that make up the bulk of Facebook’s user base, are pounded with ads more so than any generations past. The constant attachment to the internet comes with a constant supply of advertisements, for everything you could imagine, delivered from all angles. Predictably, these savy-surfers have become very good at simply ignoring the ads and surfing away through their games or chat or whatever content they may be enjoying. Ads aren’t considered the bad guy, but your run of the mill, cookie cutter advertisements simply won’t cut it with these folks.
S0 how does one get their ads noticed among a sea of people who’ve trained themselves to turn a blind eye? Easy. Well, easily said at least. You turn your ad into the very content that these people are on the internet to enjoy in the first place. While viral campaigns and the like are not new by any means in online advertising, gigantic companies like Burger King tend to be slow to react to the more cutting edge ways or reaching their audience. This is one reason it’s great to see BK taking such an active interest in spicing up their internet campaigns.
Another recent foray into the world of blending the line between ad and content is Burger King’s partnership with Seth McFarlane of Family Guy fame. “Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” is a series of animated shorts done by McFarlane’s company, Fuzzy Door Productions, and sponsored by Burger King. Available on YouTube, the intro to each episode has the King, Burger King’s mascot, on the run from some pop-culture danger, such as the Hovito warriors from Raiders of the Lost Ark. By sponsoring these videos, Burger King has essentially produced an advertisement, but in such a way that instead of being a burden, viewers are more than happy to watch it.
That willing involvement is the key to successful campaigns on the net. People are more than happy to go to YouTube and watch the opening sequence with the King and then the short, and quite funny animation that follows. Likewise, the tongue in cheek fun of telling your friend you sold them off for a free hamburger will make Burger King’s new Facebook campaign enjoyable enough for people not to mind the fact that they’re being fed an advertisement.
Burger King has done a very good job at using new media to reach out to its target audiences, and the way that they’re going about it tells me that someone in the marketing department at BK knows what the score is when it comes to reaching out to the types of users that sites like YouTube and Facebook attract.
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