When to spend money. When not to spend money.

When not to spend money:

The time when I avoid spending money is when I spend it on myself for myself with no clear benefit. I'm a simple guy and I don't need much, and I am quite fine not bothering to spend money to have a good meal for myself, or to buy a PS4 for myself so I can play Final Fantasy XV, or buy a 27" 4k computer monitor for the added resolution and desktop real estate area. In other words, I don't need leisure, and I don't want to spend money on leisure.

If I didn't have to worry about impressing anyone, I'd probably not even bother with brand name clothes and accessories.

When to spend money:

When I was younger, my mom would always say it was a waste of money when our family went out to eat. And for a time, I believed in the same thing. But then I had an epiphany. What's the purpose of saving up money, when at the end of everything, you don't spend much of it before you die? What's the point of having a shit tonne of cash in the bank, but not having experienced what life has to offer?

I'm seeing my parents die slowly each day before my eyes. They need to enjoy life. We went to eat at Cattle Cafe today. The bill was $45 after tips, and between the four of us (my sister too), it wasn't bad at all. What we get out of the $45 was a meal, but more importantly, we get family time. Since my parents are always in the restaurant, they are never home, and we rarely spend quality time. So to me, the value of the quality time we spent greatly exceeds $45, and thus in my eyes, it's worth it.

My dad wants to go to France for a week and a half this summer. My mom thinks it's a waste of money, and the old me would think so too, but then now I realize, my dad can still walk, and has relatively low health problems. If he doesn't go now, when will he be able to go? He's only going to deteriorate further, and maybe one day in the future, he might not be able to go. I told my mom she should go too, but she said her heel spur makes it too painful for her to walk around a lot, which is what tourists do. So sadly, for my mother, it's already too late for her to go to France. I'll try and convince her again to go though. But as for my dad, I'm all for him going to France. Spend the money he worked hard for, and enjoy life while he still can.

For health reasons, I'd spend money. It's an investment, in my eyes. I'll spend money on exercise equipment, like shorts, badminton racquets (though I still have to buy a new one; my old one = 9 years old), court shoes, gym drop in fees, swimming trunks, etc etc. The return I'll get is a health body, and I'll get to live longer. Definitely worth the money.

Social reasons, I'd spend money. The truth is, to build and maintain your social network, money is involved to participate in activities and events that cause social bonding. In other words, this is the fun stuff that people do regularly for leisure. Since I don't need leisure (yet), I wouldn't do these things myself, but I'd do it if my friends were doing it. This includes going out to eat, watching movies, going to E-Spot in Richmond, etc.

For relationship reasons, I'll spend all the money in the world. I will value my eventual wonderful partner higher than anything else. So, that means I'll do whatever it takes to make her happy, and that often means spending whatever it takes as well. One cannot divorce entirely activities from money. A part of this budget would be to improve my self image, not for my own sake, but for the sake of my partner. Before I find such a person, I would need to attract them first, and I'll spend a fair chunk to stock my armory with arsenal I can use to hunt down the truly special girls. This includes all the standard gear like clothing, jackets, and shoes. Also includes accessories like a ring and a watch. I even bought a $98 bottle of YSL La Nuit de l'Homme fragrance, just to make sure I have everything covered. I mean, if you can use aroma to your advantage when making an impression on a lady, then why not use it right? I'm no Taeyang or Godfrey Gao, I need all the help I can get. Btw, I love how La Nuit smells. I want to use it as a air freshener and just spray my entire room with it.

                                                    Godfrey Gao. Damn he's hot.

Since I have a limited amount of money, I need to make sure to allocate it the best I can, so I often think about what is worth my money, and what isn't.

PS: I just finished watching the trailer for Final Fantasy VX. And all I gotta say is ERHMAGERD. I might have to retract my statement about not getting a PS4 lolololol.

The date

So I had a meetup/date with Ms. Y. It went really well, I think. She was very pretty for sure, but I wasn't nervous at all. I owned the date like I own interviews. I think she was more nervous than me at first for some reason haha. Maybe it was because I was in my favourite Calvin Klein blue dress shirt. I did look pretty spiffy, if I must say so myself. I gotta. No amount of money can buy another first impression, so I gotta do it right the first time. I also had two shots of YSL La Nuit de l'Homme fragrance as well. Two shots is pretty conservative, because the general consensus is 3-4 shots would be good, but I didn't want to make the smell obvious. I wanted to have it so that she smells it infrequently. I think the infrequent reminders of my fragrance would work better than a constant reminder by smelling it all the time, and her brain will automatically tune out the smell after a while.

Ate sushi at Sushi Oyama on Kingsway. Ms. Y was one of those girls who didn't eat much. Took at all the rice from her sushi lol. I joked that she could have made another roll with all that rice. We had a good talk about school and Chinese names and other subject matter that escapes me. I footed the bill of $50, and then we went to some cafe near Royal Oak. There, she paid for tea and cake, and we also chatted for a while until the cafe closed. I got the impression that she wasn't a typical pretty girl. Focused on getting into shape, doesn't mind sweating to get the killer abs. Her view of marriage is akin to a life sentence, where one loses one's freedom. That view is fundamentally different than mine, where I see a marriage can enhance myself. Napoleon Hill explains it nicely in Chapter 11 of his book, Think and Grow Rich.

She seems very independent, with a "please myself before pleasing others" attitude, which I find is fine. I mean, ultimately, it's your own life, not someone else's, so you should come first before everyone else. Of course, there are going to be exceptions, like when one raises a family, one would place the family's needs above their own. But one can also argue that the reason why one would make sacrifices for the good of the family is because one is trying to fulfill one's desire to have a great family.

Anyway, so the cafe closed up. We walked out, and she was going to walk away, but I went in for the hug. I was like, "Wait a minute, don't people usually hug at this stage of the night?" And she replied with a laugh ,"Yeah, I guess so." Then I went in for the hug while stating it was standard protocol lol. I was lightening up the mood to make it not awkward, which it wasn't. It was a solid 2 second hug, and the only thing going through my mind at the time was, "Yessss, smell my expensive-ass fragrance that I sprayed on. Smell all 12 cents worth of fragrance on me." I'm pretty sure she got a good whiff. Hope she liked it lol.

Would I date her again? I don't know. She had her fob moments. Hard for me to understand her sometimes. She also made it clear she's not really actively seeking a partner, and she'll let whatever comes, come. Of course, I introduced her the idea that one should look for nothing less than an extraordinary partner, and just like having any other goal, the goal to get an awesome partner needs work and effort to obtain. Hopefully she'll think about it. If I don't factor in how she feels about dating, and just strictly on how I feel about her, I think I would date her again. She seemed intelligent, independent, mature, nice, and oh yeah, did I mention pretty yet?

However, once I factor in her thoughts and feelings on dating, boyfriends, and marriage, I think it would be much harder for me to snatch her up from the market, so to speak. Plus, I only have 3 months left before I jet to Korea. Although it would probably be a waste of time for me to date her for the sake of getting her as a partner, I think she'll make a good friend, so I'll continue hanging out with her for friend purposes.