The book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, looks like it’s an interesting read.

You can also watch a video overview of how these 6 ways break down:

..but for your convenience, here’s my summary in written bites:

6 ways of scientifically proven, ethical persuasion

1. Reciprocity
2. Scarcity
3. Authority
4. Consistency
5. Liking
6. Consensus

1. RECIPROCITY: Give first, and give unexpectedly

Waiters and waitresses, and diners, take note!

Receiving a mint at the end of your bill at a restaurant, makes a diner more likely to give 3% more as a tip.

Receiving two mints, jacks their tip up 14% more.

If you give the mint, and then give extra mints after saying: “But for you really nice folks, here are some extra mints“, your tip will be increased by 23%.

2. SCARCITY: Tell them it’s (really) going away

One word: Twinkies.

If you tell someone that something is disappearing, and they buy it like crazy.

I heard a $4 box of them went for something like $100 on eBay.

3. AUTHORITY: Credibility & a uniform goes a long way

People in uniform are more likely to command respect from us, than in civilian garb.

You can also have other people introduce you with a small credible factoid about your skills, which will increase your credibility.

For instance, a secretary saying that for sales, she’ll direct them to someone who has 15 years of experience in sales, makes people 20% more likely to hire them.

4. CONSISTENCY: Small commitments lead to bigger ones

They have to be voluntary and actively participating in small commitments before they are able to agree to bigger ones.

5. LIKING: People give to those who are like them

Everyone prefers people who are like them — similar interests for instance can really help negotiations and having everyone cooperate towards a greater goal.

6. CONSENSUS: Actions and behaviours of others to determine their own

We are a big herd and there is no better example than the stock market.

We look and see other people selling, before we sell all our stocks in a panic and realizing our losses instead of waiting out the rocky period.

What other people do, makes a big difference in what we do.

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These are the following things (ideas, really) that have been tossed around as eco-friendly that I refuse to do:

• Stop using toilet paper
• Stop flushing the toilet unless necessary
• Stop wearing makeup
• Stop using a car
• Stop traveling

I’m all for being eco-friendly but I draw the line at these areas!

STOP USING TOILET PAPER

BF tried to get me on board with this mini-towels as toilet wipes, but I drew the line pretty adamantly.

Then we saw an episode of Cheapskates on TLC, where this woman Victoria (among other Cheapskates) washed with a hose in the bathroom, and before he could open his mouth, I said: NO.

Sorry. No.

Actually I am not even sorry.

This is a plain flat out No.

Frankly, I don’t even know how babies do it with cloth diapers, which is probably why they get cranky and scream their lungs out so often because they end up sitting in their own filth, and it seems perfectly normal to them.

Thank goodness their brains haven’t fully formed to grasp this concept and start a riot against their parents.

It’s psychological for me because even though it may be more hygienic, I just can’t get on board.

MY COMPROMISE

None. I don’t have one. Don’t ask for one.

STOP FLUSHING UNLESS NECESSARY

You know the saying: If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down?

No.

NO.

My mother is a germaphobe.

She has passed on a little bit of that germaphobia onto me. Enough said.

MY COMPROMISE

We put a bottle of water inside the tank to have it use less water.

STOP WEARING MAKEUP

BF still can’t understand why I enjoy wearing makeup.

First reason is I enjoy it.

The second reason is that research has proven that it helps get me 10% – 12% more in terms of money, and a little goes a long way versus makeup-free or too-heavily-made-up.

• Read: Do we discriminate against unattractiveness?
• Read: The price of beauty and why we buy

Plus people respond more to me with a bit of slap on.

They’re nicer, I get more things done for me.. etc etc.

I’m not judging or screaming bloody murder about WHY THIS IS SO and burning my bra, but this just means I need to make a 5-minute effort in the morning.

(Maybe it also helps that I’m a woman. BF says I that with my face, I can get away with murder.)

Besides, it’s FUN.

MY COMPROMISE

Umm.. I don’t have one.

I just wear less makeup, don’t wear it as often (I go makeup-free most days), and use coconut oil and reusable organic cotton wipes to remove it.

STOP USING A CAR

It’s handy. Besides, how else will I get to the middle-of-nowhere to work?

Or buy lots of heavy groceries and things in one go each week?

Factories don’t exist in downtown cities, they’re in the outskirts of any city and that’s usually where I end up.

MY COMPROMISE

What I do instead, is use the car very little. We walk and take the bus when we can, but only for major shopping trips or work, do we bust out the car.

If we lived in Toronto full-time with no traveling, I’d give up the car and just use the car-sharing service when I get groceries and run errands.

STOP TRAVELLING

Do I need to go into why?

Lisbon, Portugal.. The Portuguese REALLY love hilly landscapes.

MY COMPROMISE

When I fly, I fly and stay there for more than 2 weeks, about 2-3 months so that my flying is minimized. I travel about once a year for a few months away from Canada.

What about you? Where would you draw the line?

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I was talking to someone the other day who said to me: But why would I bother paying down my mortgage now? My interest rate is at like.. 3% and I could make more investing it in the stock market.

Half true.

1. You’re assuming you’ll make more on the stock market which is not entirely true

Unless you have a crystal ball, you aren’t ever going to know if you make more on the stock market.

Yes, in the LONG-TERM you will make more money in the stock market than saving it away in a 1.3% piddly high-interest savings account, but for the short-term, 5-10 years, the stock market could dip again.

2. You are paying 3% interest…… NOW

..but when interest rates increase to 4%.. then 5%.. then 6%… then 7%… perhaps all the way up to the average 11.45% – 12.71% it has historically been in the past, maybe you’re going to wish you cleared that debt today.

• Read: How much space do you really need?

3. But rates are SO CHEAP! I have to get in NOW to lock them down.

Not really. If you spend less money overall on the debt, it is worth it to pay more in interest on less.

Take for instance if you borrow $10,000 and pay 3%, you’re paying about $300 a year.

If you wait, save up, and borrow $8000 instead because prices have gone down and people are more desperate to sell, you will pay 5% which means you’re paying $400 a year or $100 more, but you’ll have saved $2000 in the process.

Think about this for a home. Waiting for prices to go down, and paying $50,000 less, is $50,000 less of debt you will have, which will outweigh any percentage increase in interest rates you may have.

When the times are good, clear your debt as quickly as possible to prepare for the bad times.

Now is the BEST time to clear your debts.

Clear your mortgage while it’s still at its deliciously low interest rate, and get rid of it while you still can, and while MORE of your money goes towards the principal rather than the interest rate.

Don’t wait until the rates go up before realizing you should have done it sooner.

Don’t take on more debt to buy a new car, a new toy, a pool, or any other kind of depreciating asset EVEN THOUGH the interest rates are low and very enticing.

If you want something (usually unnecessary, I’m guessing) and can’t afford it save until you have enough to buy it in full, and then CHOOSE to buy it on credit and pay 0% interest or whatever it is that they’re offering you.

Don’t get screwed on the upswing and regret it.

Debt is never a way of life and never a good thing to have unless you are in control and know what you’re doing.

Who are those in-control people you say?

They are people who have plenty of cash in their bank accounts, and are borrowing money at super low interest rates because they KNOW they can leverage that money to make more by investing it, but if push comes to shove, they have the ability to liquidate what they have to clear that loan if things get nasty.

That’s who is in control of debt and can use it wisely.

UPDATE: Looks like Garth had the same brainwave I did when I was walking around outside looking at For Sale signs on homes coming up with this post on a whim, because he wrote a perfect piece to why you should rent instead of buy.

He just did a lot better than I did.

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Read a post from the NY Times: Sometimes, We Want Prices to Fool Us, where it details out something I’ve read about a couple of times in books that talk about the psychology of shopping.

Devoted coupon users like Ms. Fobes may be more frugal than the typical consumer.

But most shoppers, coupon collectors or not, want the thrill of getting a great deal, even if it’s an illusion.

In recent months, Penney recognized that human trait and backtracked on its pricing policy, offering coupons and running weekly sales again.

And it started marking up items to immediately mark them down for the appearance of a discount.

“But for someone like me, who’s always looking for a sale or a coupon — seeing that something is marked down 20 percent off, then being able to hand over the coupon to save, it just entices me,” she said. “It’s a rush.”

Basically, we WANT to feel like we’re getting a deal, even if we aren’t.

RETAILERS MARK UP PRICES TO MARK THEM DOWN

This is a very common practice, and done at J. C. Penney, but also at The Bay. I’ve noticed that most of their prices are overpriced (in shopping comparisons), but then they offer a “25% off” deal that makes you think that you’re getting it for cheaper.

Even before big sales (Black Friday, Boxing Day, etc), they mark up prices and then do a fake mark down to make us feel like we’re getting a deal.

RETAILERS KNOW WE WANT A DEAL BUT CAN’T DO MATH

It’s commonly known that we get tricked when math comes into play.

BUY ONE GET THE SECOND FOR HALF THE PRICE

…is easy to understand, but something more complicated where some math is involved like:

BUY ONE & GET THE SECOND ONE FOR 35% OFF, AND THE THIRD FOR 37% OFF

..makes it harder for us to understand which one is really the better deal because we suck at knowing how to multiply for percentages.

That’s probably a crappy example, but you know what I mean. When there are tiered percentages (much like tiered tax rates), we get confused as to when the discount is applied, to what amount and when.

For the record, this is how I do the calculation for sales:

If something is 37% off, I multiply the item by 63% to get the “real” price right away.

E.g. $10 item at 37% off

$10 x 0.63 = $6.30

Otherwise you are stuck doing the calculation the LONG way, which is to multiply $10 by 0.37 and then to subtract that discount from the original $10 price.

If I am doing a calculation for two or more items, I always get the final price for both, then divide it by 2 to see if it’s really a deal or not.

E.g. $10 item with the second one half off

$10 + $10 – $5 = $15

$15 / 2 = $7.50 each

So if I see a deal for the item at let’s say 30% off, or at $7 each, it’s clearly a better deal to buy them at 30% off than it is to buy one with the second half off.

THE REAL DEALS APPEAR AT AROUND THE 40% MARK

The Frugal Guru Guide says the following for clothes (although I reckon it works for everything):

If it says regular price, it’s really 40% more expensive than it should be.

If it says 30% off, it’s really regular price.

If it says 40% off, it’s really 14% off.

If it says 50% off, it’s really  37% off.

If it says 60% off, it’s really 43% off.

If it says 70% off, it’s really 57% off.

If it says 80% off, it’s really 71% off.

So you can see that when discounts start at 40%, then it’s a REAL deal, as in you’re finally getting something for the actual price.

I haven’t tested out this theory but it sounds correct based on what I have observed at retailers. It isn’t until something hits the final sale rack that it is really a good deal.

Otherwise, retailers are always giving “deals” at 20% off, 30%, or 40% off to make you think that you should get in and buy the items NOW before the deal disappears.

DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFOREHAND

Before I buy anything, I tend to do my research, especially for big ticket items.

I know what the price is at retail, then I figure out a discount that is acceptable to me, consider any sales taxes, and whatever other accessories or bonuses I get with the deal.

I also keep a price chart for things I buy often such as certain vitamins or creams.

I don’t bother keeping track of things I don’t plan on buying again, but without a price chart, I’ll never remember what things cost.

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What I’ve noticed a lot, is people feel a lot of regret, especially career-driven folks.

Most of the regret, comes with not spending enough time with family, or things you wish you didn’t say or do in the past.

…but all of that is useless if you don’t change the future that comes.

If you keep saying to yourself:

I wish I spent more time with my family, I missed all of their growing, formative years because I’ve been working so much

…the time to change is now.

You have made this choice for whatever reason.

You are working 3 jobs, sleeping 7 hours a night, all to feed your family and put a roof over their heads. This is something YOU decided.

You can either stop feeling guilty about it and say:

You know what? I am doing this because I want to for my family, and it is MY choice.

No, I am not regretting any of this.

Or you can say:

Tomorrow, I start seeing where and I can find more time to spend with them, and what I can change to make it happen.

Maybe what you’re doing is simply spending too much money, so you feel the need to continue to work like a dog to try and keep up with your spending.

Instead, why not focus on making a budget, and cutting back your expenses to the point where you can work a comfortable amount of time, and have time to spend with your family?

Either way, it is a choice that YOU made, so don’t try and blame it on anything else because you have set a priority either consciously or subconsciously, and you’re following through.

One day, the time will come when those regrets build up if you don’t make peace with them, and will become a solid boulder on your chest, weighing heavily on your conscience until the day you die.

REGRETS ON YOUR DEATHBED

The most personal story I have to reflect regrets, is on my grandfather’s deathbed, he asked for my grandmother’s forgiveness for all the times he ever laid his fists on her in anger during their marriage.

He regretted it deeply, and he begged her with tears in his eyes to forgive him. She said she could see that he had been carrying that mental weight around for years.

She looked him straight in the eyes and said:

No. I don’t forgive you, and I never will.

You won’t be getting that kind of peace from me before you leave this world.

..and he died a day later with that weight on his chest.

She told me this later, when she was about to die, and told me that her most precious advice was to never ever settle for anyone less than whom I deserve.

I asked her if she regretted anything, and she said she didn’t because she did what she had to and leave her situation, and it worked out well in the end because she had her children and grandchildren.

‘We all make choices, and we can always change them’, she said.

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It really is no joke when you go to NYC and realize that a shoebox is considered an apartment.

Although everyone likes to moan about the lack of space in NYC, they aren’t the only ones who have a monopoly on bitching about space because Japan as a country has been living like that for years.

They have completely empty bedrooms (after rolling up the futons) that they transform into other rooms during the day, so that the space is always used and not wasted.

Anyway, came across this awesome video from Gizmodo, of Graham Hill’s apartment which he named Life Edited. I am continually on the lookout (and fascinated) by small living spaces. It’s incredible how efficient you can be if you put your mind to it:

Note: All the following images were borrowed from Life Edited to illustrate my points below and linked to the site as well.

Even though I am enamoured with his apartment and find it VERY cool because I am thinking of all the neat things that are in there such as:

LOVE THE PROJECTION SCREEN — IT’S SOMETHING WE ALREADY HAVE

STORAGE IS FANTASTIC, ALBEIT A BIT SMALL BECAUSE OF THE REQUIRED BED

I’d get rid of the couch/bed situation to have more storage across the whole back wall.

That said, there are a few things I know won’t work for me and I’d absolutely have to change:

THE EXISTING KITCHEN IS TOO SMALL TO REALLY COOK IN

Yes, 3 induction burners that you plug in, and a toaster oven/microwave oven dual-purpose gadget is cool, but it is too tiny for real, all-out, no holds barred cooking.

I’m talking Le Creuset pots going while things are in the oven, and someone is making a sauce on the side.

Also, induction burners don’t give you the heat required to cook certain foods that require major high heat properly. I prefer gas, but I’ll take regular coil burners over induction any day.

This is great for NYC cooking, that is to say, people who generally go out to eat or pick up prepared foods at Whole Foods.

ELIMINATE THE  GUEST BEDROOM AND MAKE THAT A SLIDING KITCHEN

Yes, in NYC you’d get a lot of guests, but having 100% of that space set up just for guests that come to visit less than 10% of the year (that’s in my case), is impractical for my lifestyle.

I’d turn that guest bedroom area into a kitchen instead, and the existing kitchen area would become the office.

That sliding wall thing is great, because you could just open it when you want to use the kitchen, and close it when you don’t.

THE BATHROOM IS JUST A TINY BIT TOO SMALL

I can survive in a bathroom like that for a year or so, but it is just too tiny. I’m imagining that 6″, rather hefty guys who have to squeeze their bodies into such a small space and not get stuck!?

No thanks.

I know we don’t spend 24 hours in a bathroom, but it just needs to be about a foot wider or so.

FOR ME, I WOULD COMPLETELY ELIMINATE THE BED AND USE THAT SPACE AS STORAGE

Go Japanese!

Eliminate that fold-down bed and use that space as more storage. You could just unroll a futon when you want to sleep, or roll it up when you’re done with it.

Yes it sounds like a lot more work than just flipping down a bed when you want to sleep, but it’d be more efficient to sleep on the floor for us.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, THAT COUCH COULD ALSO BE ELIMINATED

My ideal situation would be to have the futon bed on the floor, act as a couch as well. I mean, it’s mostly just me and BF all the time, and we don’t really use a couch.

Otherwise, the whole apartment is great.

I love the sliding walls that turn the space into different kinds of spaces, and I think the whole concept is very cool.

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This is a part of the Investing Series.

————————————————-

This calculation of “multiples” of a stock price, are also sometimes called “technical analyses”, because there are hard numbers associated with it.

Other analyses that are not as technical, include the “gut feeling” analyses, and “speculative” analyses, where you think a company MIGHT go up in value, and/or grow in ways that are not easily seen by the market.

You don’t REALLY need to do any of these calculations because you can just go to Google Finance or Yahoo Finance and look at what they’ve done for American stocks (they tend to be fairly accurate), however if you’re looking for Canadian companies, you might have to do a bit of digging because we aren’t as organized.

WHAT ARE SOME COMMON THINGS (a.k.a. MULTIPLES) WE CAN USE TO EVALUATE STOCKS?

As I mentioned above, calculating some ratios or multiples to use in an analysis on what a stock is worth, is the first step once you zero in on a stock you like.

Here are 3 very common ratios that I will go into detail:

(I will try to add more as the series goes on..)

• Fair Value of a Company
• Price to Earnings
• Price to Book

There are plenty more than just the above, but those are the main ones that people use, and luckily, you can simply use Google Finance or Yahoo Finance and you’ll get these ratios on pretty much any American company that’s trading on the stock market.

Canadians, may have to do a bit of work, because we don’t have the kind of breadth of financial coverage as the Americans do.

FAIR VALUE VS. BOOK VALUE VS. MARKET VALUE

All of the above just takes into account how much the company is worth.

Before we continue, we should talk about what all these values mean.

1. FAIR VALUE = Book value of the company (tangible assets) + Intangible Assets
2. BOOK VALUE = Tangible Assets only
3. MARKET VALUE = The stock price on the market today

WHAT ARE TANGIBLE VERSUS INTANGIBLE ASSETS?

Tangible assets are things you can physically sell.

Think of it like what you own — you have a car, books, a camera, a laptop, and clothes. You could sell all of that, all your TANGIBLE items, to make money.

Intangible assets are things you can’t physically touch, but can sell.

Think of it like your brain, or your reputation for being an excellent worker. You can’t physically take out your brain and sell it, but you could sell your services or your reputation for being an honest, great person to work with which would then make you money. These are your INTANGIBLE assets.

A company works in the same way.

What is “book” value versus “market” value?

Normally, book value refers to what you bought a stock at, and market value is what the stock is currently worth and what you could sell the stock for, today.

In companies however, book value calculations mean something slightly different, as in the physical tangible assets of the company divided by the shares outstanding.

It can be confusing when you hear “book value” to know what it means, but in the context of investing, you should know if it’s referring to the stocks you hold, or the company’s value.

In regards to stocks you hold (or your investments in general), most people focus on market value, because book value is only interesting if you want to figure out the profit of how much you made or lost.

Take for instance a bike as an example.

A Chinese “car”

Let’s say you bought it brand new at $5000.

The book value at the time you bought it, is $5000.

However, after 3 years, the depreciation against the bike (“wear and tear”), has chopped that book value in half to $2500.

The new market value of the bike and how much you could sell it to a friend today, is $2500.

It doesn’t matter what you bought the bike at in the beginning, because if the market dictates that it’s only worth 50% of what it was before, then it’s only worth 50%.

Stocks work the same way in your portfolio. You buy something for $5, it drops in value to $1, you lost $4 in value, and it’s worth $4 less than your book value, with $1 as your market value.

So what’s “BOOK” value of a company then?

It’s simply all the TANGIBLE assets of a company, such as their furniture, vehicles, land, factory, equipment, tools and so on.

This is not very handy in companies that deal with intangibles like services (consulting, technology, etc), because there are no actual “tangible assets” of the company, as the assets are their people and their brains.

Book value is handy for manufacturing companies, and less so for tech ones for instance.

You can value a company by its hard assets in a factory, less so in a technology or consulting-oriented one.

So what is “FAIR” value of a company then?

It takes the same idea of above, but it figures out how much a company is worth today on paper (on its balance sheets), and divides it by the number of shares it has issued so far.

.. but unlike BOOK value, FAIR value takes into account tangible AND intangible assets.

So let’s say that with a car, you bought the car as one of the 4 shareholders of the car and you each paid $5000 of the original $20,000 value.

Your brother, sister, and cousin have the other three-quarters of the car’s share.

Today, let’s say you all wanted to sell the car to a friend you all know.

Your friend would look at what the car is worth today ($10,000) at market value, and then (presumably) give you that amount of money for the car, plus a little extra ($1000) because he considers you friends and knows you took really good care of the car and trusts your goodwill / reputation as being honest sellers.

He pays you all a total of: $11,000 because he knows he won’t run into trouble with the car turning into a lemon after he drives it for a week.

You would each then receive $2750, as one of the 4 shareholders of the car.

(Maybe not THIS car for $11,000 but you get the idea.)

The original book value is $20,000 (tangible asset, you paid $20K for before)

The current market value is $10,000 (tangible asset after depreciation)

The fair value is $11,000 (tangible asset plus goodwill for being great caretakers)

DOING THE CALCULATIONS FOR BOOK AND FAIR VALUE OF A COMPANY:

If we want a real-live example of a company’s net worth or book value, here’s one we can look at:

This company had the following assets and liabilities; if it were a human, we could call it its “net worth”:

• $9.5 billion in tangible assets (its physical assets like its land, or the office furniture)
• $3.1 billion in intangible assets (its goodwill or its reputation)
• $3.3 billion in total liabilities (how much it owes)
• 524 million shares outstanding (how many shares it has sold on the market)

If we look at the calculations for BOOK VALUE:

$9.5B (Tangible Assets) – $3.3B (Liabilities) = $6.2B in tangible book value or net worth

$6.2 billion / 524 million shares = $11.83 per share in tangible BOOK VALUE

This means that if we just took their physical assets, the company is literally at the core of its parts, worth $11.83 per share.

If we look at calculations for its FAIR VALUE:

$9.5B (Tangible Assets) + $3.1B (Intangible Assets) – $3.3B (Liabilities) = $9.3B

$9.3 billion / 524 million shares = $17.75 per share in tangible and intangible FAIR VALUE

This means if we took their physical (tangible) assets and its intangible assets such as its reputation or goodwill, it is worth $17.75 per share.

How can you even count “intangible” assets in a company?

It sounds like Fair Value just overvalues the company right?

Well, for one thing, a brand has a reputation or a name, and this name is worth something.

(What it’s worth, is up for debate, but there’s no denying that it’s worth something.)

Take for instance McDonald’s or Coca-Cola.

Everyone knows their name all over the world, and if you were to sell that company, that reputation and brand recognition is worth something because it’s been built over the years and is globally recognizable, compared to some upstart company that might also sell fast food or soft drinks but would not be as well-recognized.

People will pay for that brand name and it’s worth something.

For another thing, intangible assets also includes things like PATENTS.

Many technology companies, are more intangible than tangible in terms of assets, so if you were to run P/B ratios on them that only looked at their hard assets, they’d look horribly overvalued.

P/B works best (in my opinion) for manufacturing companies that have factories and actual, physical assets that they need to produce things.

It’s not so hot for service industries (consulting) where it’s intangible assets like reputation, name or goodwill, or technology industries where it’s full of assets like patents, reputation and goodwill.

DON’T ASSUME ALL OF THIS IS ALL BLACK AND WHITE EITHER

Fair warning, it’s a bit of a guessing game with multiples.

You may have to also adjust and account for the fact that a company has a riskier profile than its competitors because it is poised for some serious growth.

Or that a company is about to go bankrupt, which is why it looks like such a bargain compared to its rivals.

It’s a lot like trying to figure out what the right price for a house is.

Your real estate agent might take houses that sold in the area with similar properties such as the number of bedrooms, whether there’s parking, or public transportation nearby, and then take an average (or a weighted average) of those sale prices to figure out what the right price for YOUR house is.

Maybe you have a pool and no one else does!

That could be a major selling point, and be an $20,000 extra on your list price.

Stocks are exactly like that — it’s all in relation to one another with exactly the same as anchor pricing cues to boot.

PRICING CUES:

When you see something at $1.00, you can’t imagine paying $100 for it because the pricing cue is $1.00.

Yet when you see something at $1000, you think that anything at $25 must be a rip off because the pricing cue set in your brain, thinks that $1000 is normal.

Read: Anchor Pricing Cues — how does it affect the way I buy?

SUMMARY

• No one has the secret formula to become filthy rich
• It takes time to calculate multiples for a “technical” view, but it’s also a guessing game
• There are many ratios that you can calculate — it’s all up to you which ones to pick
• Tangible assets are things you can physically sell — factory, vehicles, land, machines
• Intangible assets are things you can’t physically touch but can sell — brand names, reputation
• Pricing cues are in effect when it comes to stock pricing 

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As if you need even more of a reason to think I’m odd, I don’t drink.

I don’t like the taste, I don’t like how I feel when I drink and the only ways alcohol will (generally) ever enter my body is:

• if I have a cut and need to disinfect it
• if it gets added to food to give flavour
• if I am obligated to toast someone (with a glass of champagne for instance)
• if I am curious and just want to taste this particular wine to see if I can tell the difference between other wines I’ve tasted (just a sip, not a gulp)

Otherwise, I refuse all offerings of alcohol, and half a cup is still too much for me to drink.

Lots of people get really uncomfortable when I say I don’t drink. It’s almost as though I am not part of the group, or the “team” if I don’t drink.

Or they think I’m a religious nut who treats her body like a temple and/or I have a personal problem with drinking that I want to start lecturing everyone on.

It’s just something that is foreign to them because.. EVERYONE likes to drink!

It’s even worse when I go to France.

That whole country is full of wine-lovers.

No one can understand why I don’t drink wine, and BF’s cousin makes it his personal mission in good humour, to try coax get me to drink by telling me things like:

You are being awfully rude to the host if you don’t drink at least a bottle by yourself.

He never pushes me but he teases me about it.

In the past, I just made up socially-acceptable excuses like:

• I am on medication
• I need to drive
• I’m allergic

Lately however, I’ve just been saying the truth: I don’t like it. 

It kind of surprises people.

There’s not much else to say to that other than: “Oh.”

…but the only difference is now I’m treated like pariah because I’m the oddball who just doesn’t like the way alcohol tastes.

They might also think I’m just an uppity, rude snob.

*shrug* So be it.

I’m actually tired of making up fake medications and reasons.

Sooner or later, a liar always gets caught.

It’s better to be honest about something as banal as not liking alcohol than to lie about it. I don’t want people to think I’m a liar for everything over something as stupid as not wanting to drink.

The only part that could hurt me career-wise, is that clients like to go out and drink. There was a monthly bar hop that happened at a client I was at once, among all the workers, and I’d always decline.

I was pulled aside after a few refusals and told that I was not being a ‘team player’ because I wouldn’t go out to drink until 2 a.m. in the morning, and come in to work red-eyed and hungover.

That rather shocked me at the time because I thought it would be more professional to NOT get a hangover at work the next day, and to be productive to earn my keep.

Or am I wrong?

Anyway I learned my lesson. Turns out, drinking is also a social lubricant.

If you drink, you’re in. If you don’t… you’re on the outs.

Next time I encounter this kind of corporate culture, I’ll go on occasion and order a fake Rum and Coke (just the Coke), and then make up some lie about having to drive home.

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This is going to sound a bit like a granola-crunching post, but it is something that has been on my mind for the past 4 years.

It’s not so much that I want to turn into a hippie, a 100% vegan, or start turning my hair into dreadlocks (…somehow I think it would be a look I could not pull off), but the idea of waste and the environment has been on my mind for about 6 years now.

We really only have one planet Earth right now, so until we find a second Earth to destroy, I have an obligation to try my best to do my part.

As a result, I’ve been a lot more conscious about plastic and waste in my life and it’s starting to change my mindset but not my lifestyle, so I thought I’d do a list and see if I could solicit some more suggestions or ideas!

Or just help other people who want to do things.

ECO-FRIENDLY THINGS I ALREADY DO

• Stopped using detergent in 99% of my laundry
• Stopped using the dryer and using any dryer sheets
• Bring my own reusable bags
• Stopped using makeup remover
• Use handkerchiefs
• Compost food
• Repair what I already own
• Don’t dye my hair or using any products or hairstyling tools
• Buy secondhand and thrifted clothing
• Use reusable feminine products

DRINK LOOSE LEAF TEA

As a tea snob this was inevitable, but I don’t use tea bags and I don’t need to toss them.

My loose leaf tea is simply put into water, steeped, and then composted.

I also use a reusable tin that they just re-fill when I want more.

NO DETERGENT IN LAUNDRY 99% OF THE TIME

You’d be surprised that using detergent is not that necessary.

Warm water and agitation, gets the dirt and sweat out, and it doesn’t smell like anything afterwards.

I would not recommend this for reusable cloth diapers or greasy kitchen towels.

Throw a little detergent in there.

NOT USING THE DRYER OR ANY DRYER SHEETS

I’ve taken to just hanging things up like in the good ol’ days on hangers with clothespins (I don’t have a clothesline any more).

As for dryer sheets, I learned that the soft feeling you get from the dryer sheets, comes from animal fat. It’s kind of gross, but understandable.

Still, I noticed it leaves a film on my clothes and I don’t particularly enjoy the scent or the feeling, so I just hang everything up to dry.

The towels are bit crunchy but are fine after one dry-off. It’s a small price to pay.

WHAT ABOUT BLEACHING WHITES?

For bleaching whites, it would be better if I had a real backyard with real sunshine and hot weather, because I could just hang my whites out to dry in the blazing hot sun and get them bleached naturally without any chemicals.

Alas, I live in Canada, land of polar bears, igloos, and snow.

(EVEN IN MARCH.)

(We just had hail in MAY. MAY!! 2013.. HAIL!!!)

So I just don’t bleach whites very often and I avoid buying white things like white kitchen towels.

When they get a big stain, I have a bleach alternative that I rarely use that doesn’t hurt the environment, but I rarely use it. I still have the bottle of bleach from about 4 years ago.

YOU MUST STILL DRY-CLEAN SOMETHING

I do.

I dry clean my coats and things I absolutely cannot hand wash, but I don’t do it very often.

I dry clean my things perhaps once a year or every 2 years (like winter coats).

BRING MY OWN REUSABLE BAGS

This one is easy. I just keep a bag with me all the time.

I’ve eliminated all those flimsy plastic bags I went crazy buying a while back (donated them), and bought some plain organic cotton bags which I plan on decorating with paints because I’m that kind of person.

I will concede that not having plastic bags sucks for household garbage disposal (that $0.05 rule has pretty much been abandoned by many retailers I frequent, they just eat the cost of the bags), but now we just use bigger garbage bags, and we try to waste as little as possible.

COMPOST FOOD AND ORGANIC WASTE

Toronto has a great program that lets you compost food and organic waste.

BRILLIANT!

All the peels and things go into this compost Green Bin, and this has SIGNIFICANTLY reduced our garbage pile.

I’m pretty pleased about it.

USE HANDKERCHIEFS

I have a huge stockpile and I throw them all in the wash after I use them.

Warm water and agitation gets anything out. Seriously.

I don’t only have one or two either; I have about 15 cloths and I use them constantly.

REPAIR THINGS I ALREADY OWN

Shoes, clothes, everything gets repaired rather than thrown out if I can help it.

DON’T DO ANYTHING TO MY HAIR EXCEPT CLEAN IT

I don’t dye it, I don’t use any products on it except coconut oil on the ends, and I don’t use any hairstyling tools.

Au naturel for now. Maybe my tune will change once I start getting more and more grey hairs.

*crosses fingers*

BUY SECOND-HAND CLOTHING

• Read: Switching to 100% thrifted or consigned clothing – can I do it?

USE REUSABLE FEMININE PRODUCTS

This will certainly be too much for the male readers of my post, so I’ll just say the names of two products:

1. Diva Cup
2. Moonpads

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Here are some rather common mistakes made by freelancers that you should probably try and avoid.

1. FORGETTING TO INVOICE YOUR CLIENT

You’re laughing in disbelief at this, but it has happened!

(Not to me, of course, I’m a PF freak among other things.)

People actually forget to send out invoices for whatever reason — got busy, got lost in the shuffle, didn’t keep track of all the work done… or they simply forgot.

(I know right? How can you FORGET to ask for money?)

The problem is that if your clients never get an invoice, how are they going to know what they owe, and when to pay it?

They sure aren’t going to be chasing you down, waving money in your face saying:

Wait! WAIT! I haven’t paid you! How much money do I owe you!?

That only happens in dream worlds, and you’re not living in one.

Think of it this way: If you were an employee working for a company, and they didn’t pay you because you forgot to enter your time sheet, you’d be entering that time sheet pretty quickly. Like ASAP.

It’s the same thing with clients.

Set up a schedule in Excel, make a note of how many hours you need to bill, and invoice them WITHOUT FAIL.

I make it the first thing of each payday to invoice. I never, ever, EVER miss the deadline.

2. NOT COLLECTING THE MONEY

You’re going to snort in disbelief again, but it happens.

Yes, I know.

It’s a small business, Mom-and-Pop-Shop kind of deal, and you really made friends with them when you worked with them.

Heck, Mom even made you an apple pie for Christmas!

The problem is now Pop (or is it Mom?) seems to be quietly ignoring your invoices, hoping you’ll be the good guy in this scenario, take pity and “forget” to collect on them.

This is where you start to feel like some sort of Mafia enforcer or some sleazy collections agency representative:

• How often do I harass them for the money?
• How much stronger should I make my words? Or my actions?
• Should I call in a lawyer?

My answer is yes to all of the above, unless of course… you can do without the money and you’re willing to just write it off as a pro bono project.

Keep putting on the pressure until you get your money.

Print this image if you have to, and paste your face over one of these tough guys:

Via Mark Wadestone

Twist those metaphorical screws and repeat to yourself:

They received a service that has not been paid.

If you owned a store, and someone ate an apple in front of you and then refused to pay for it, wouldn’t you be irate?

This is YOUR BUSINESS.

It’s how you pay your bills, eat, survive, save for retirement and make a living.

Your business (among other things), is to COLLECT MONEY FOR SALES RENDERED.

Accounts Receivable = Not actual cash in your pocket

If you don’t get your money, or you feel like you don’t really want to go through the hassle of having to ask people for money (for whatever reason), then hire an enforcer-of-invoices (also known as an administrative secretary).

Pay him or her by the hour to call and ask for the money if you can’t stomach it.

If it escalates to the point where they refuse to pay you, pull out your contract, call your lawyer and start legal proceedings against them.

If you think that is mean, you should keep in mind that if you failed to hold up your end of the bargain to deliver what you promised, they’d be right on you with a lawyer nipping at your heels.

3. NOT GETTING ANYTHING IN WRITING

..which brings me to my third point: Not having a contract is one of the dumbest things you can miss as a freelancer.

A contract doesn’t have to be 50 pages and long-winded, and it doesn’t make you look like a bad person to ask for something in writing. It makes you look professional and conscientious.

If you want to keep it simple, keep it simple. The point of all of this is to get it in writing so that in case of a problem, you can wave it in their face and say: Hey remember this?

Get your rate in writing, the scope of the project, how/when you will be invoicing them, and when they’re expected to cough up the money.

I never, EVER start any project without something in writing. It sure makes me look like some sort of picky witch, but I don’t care. It’s my business, just as it is theirs to get me to work for them.

Without a contract, things and other important details like how much you’ll get paid get murky and confusing because people have faulty memories (sometimes on purpose, but sometimes they’re genuinely forgetful), and you can’t rely on memories when you’re squawking at each other.

4. UNDERESTIMATING THE COST OF YOUR TIME OR YOUR RATE

Yes, it’s just your brain, and you’re not exactly selling products, but does it make a difference?

Not a damn bit.

Figure out a realistic and fair timeframe for the project, how much it’ll cost, and present that as a figure to your client.

Once they sign off, they’ll be mentally agreeing to that price (fixed or not).

If you underestimate the project and then have to backtrack to ask them for more money, guess who’s going to be extremely annoyed and less open to any kind of increase in payment?

Ask for the right amount, up front, and if it’s a fair amount of money for both parties.

There are plenty of cheap freelancers out there, but it doesn’t mean they’re any good, do you want to be associated with the word “cheap”, rather than “quality”?

Good freelancers know to say “No” to unprofitable projects, and it protects your business as well, so you can keep charging what you are worth.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT TO CHARGE?

Quick and dirty calculation: To figure out your rate, take a fair salary you’d get if you worked at a company, double it, and divide by 2000 (hours in a year) which takes into account that freelancers work about 50% of the time on average.

From there, you have a wiggle room of about $10 either way.

Don’t be greedy, but don’t be naive either.

5. GIVING DISCOUNTS BECAUSE YOU’RE A FREELANCER

So you’re alone and you don’t really have any overhead (unless you count your dog as a dependent).

Who cares?

You’re still the one doing the job, and you still need to get paid.

Why should you be expected to give a discount at all? This isn’t a commodity business if you’re selling your services and your brain.

There’s only one of you.

Don’t waste your time with people who aren’t willing to pay and just want a deal, and don’t care about the end result (yet).

They’ll come around once they realize they were only looking at the cost, and in doing so, will end up paying TWICE what they had originally budgeted.

Maybe three times their original budget, if you’re anything like me, and you add a friendly little surcharge to fix the mess that was left behind.

Or maybe they won’t come back at all (good riddance!), but it’s better to have a profitable client than a cheap one who will probably badmouth your work once you’re done.

Just know that deep down inside that if they managed to find someone at the cutthroat prices they’re quoting, it is likely to be utter crap, and their business will suffer as a result.

Karma!!

My last point about not giving a deep discount is that you’ll just be screwing your own business, because now they’ll expect your high quality work at low-unsustainable-prices, and you’re the one that conditioned them for all that.

In that case, you get everything that you deserve.

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