Everything Goes on Sale

If you’re a patient consumer, you will get some good deals because practically everything you can purchase goes on sale at some point. Most people are familiar with browsing the Sunday ads, or braving Black Friday, but there are also sales on things other than clothes, food, and electronics that are important to be aware of.

• People on Sale — No, I’m not really talking about prostitutes or slaves. During any economic recession or depression, labor is on sale for pennies on the dollar. We’re currently enjoying historically low unemployment in the United States, and employers are actually competing for good workers and thus raising salaries. It is even possible that some people are overvalued. Right now is actually a great time for employees to save as much money as they can because once a recession comes, there will be massive layoffs and many people will go on sale for half off or more. Conversely, the best time for a company to hire the most skilled people is in a recession, because they are getting the most value out of their purchase. Ofcourse, humans have free will, and can leave once they get a better offer, but at least the company could have used the best people to help it through a recession at the best price possible.

• Housing on Sale — If you want a home to live in, then the current rental market is on mass discount. In California it’s common to be able to rent a home for half or a third the cost of mortgage. If you want to buy a home, you have to be patient and wait until they go on sale or dig for a deal. Many homebuilders are already offering discounts and incentives to attract buyers to new construction. Buying a used property is kind of like going to an antique shop, there is really no perfect standard for the value of an antique, but it’s possible to get an appraisal with good research. Also, it’s possible to haggle for a better deal than the listing price. For most people, a house is the biggest purchase they will ever make in their lives, so it makes perfect sense to search for a sale. Unfortunately, for the past few years there has been a frenzy to snatch up real estate without much thought to getting the best value.

• Companies on Sale — There are many books written about value investing. I will not pretend to know more than what I read in books. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a classic on this topic. What he wrote in the 1930s still applies in today’s market. In my opinion the current US stock market is overvalued, but there are many good deals in other countries.

Some may argue that the time and effort spent on tracking down sales is not worth the discount received. This is true in some cases. It probably isn’t worth the time and gas to drive to a store 20 miles away for a 3 dollar discount on a bag of rice, but it might be worth the effort for someone to do this for a 300 dollar discount on 100 bags of rice. For bigger purchases like a house or an employee, you can afford to wait for a sale and the pay off for your patience and research is likely to be very significant.

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