Long before money (silver and gold coins) was invented, the barter system was used by traders to exchange goods. Since the first gold coin was forged from its cast, money has been appreciated by many, for it is light and easy to carry. As time passed by, appreciation towards the invention of money has been clouded by greed and this eventually leads to Credit Crunch.

However, as I was surfing the internet the other day, I stumbled onto a very inspiring and eye-opening video, the “One Red Paper Clip” video on YouTube.

This is a story of a young man who bartered all the way from a tiny red paper clip to a house.

Needless to say, if an average Joe can trade all the way from one small paper clip to a house, I am pretty sure there are  millions of people who are struggling financially in this rough financial thunderstorm can barter their way out of debt as well.

On top of the video, I have also discovered that Robert Kiyosaki, a financial guru had organized a 3-day-course called “Art of a Deal” a week ago where participants did nothing but traded goods with each another without money.

This had me wondering if it is possible to survive or even achieve financial success during this financial meltdown through bartering?

It is quite certain that barter system will not replace the money system we have now considering how deep the mess we are in. But is it possible that bartering is the new way of achieving financial freedom? Has the buying and selling behaviour reverted and does it still take money to make money?

You tell me.

“If I have a million dollars, I will …” is a sentence that everybody can complete. However, only 10% of the population’s can actually achieve it and less than a handful goes beyond the millions.

I still remember exactly 6 years ago, one of my respective teachers talked about his dream of getting a million dollars. He was about 40 years old and he said, “If I have a million dollars now, I will retire, put the million into my bank’s savings account and siphon the yearly interest until I die”. He said the interest from the million is more than enough for him to live a simple life.

What he said made perfect sense to me while I was still a kid and it probably makes sense to some of you in the present too.

Nevertheless, if my teacher were to get his one million dollars 6 years ago, the million would worth significantly less (even with the interest) than 1 million due to inflation. Not to mention he still has government tax to pay, monthly expenditures, holiday trips, children’s education and random doodads to spend on.

The value of the million will decline over the years  and I’m not entirely convinced that he could buy his own coffin with the million he owned.

Look, I’m not here to mock my teacher’s financial knowledge and I’m definitely not here to teach you how to spend your million dollars. I wrote this article to raise the awareness of the constant decrease in buying power with our currency.

You may have noticed that price of goods have been increasing steadily over the years and packaging of goods have shrank while the price remains unchanged. Our salary on the other hand had not moved a bit. All these are signs of our currency declining in value.

So why would the currency decline in value?

It would take pages to explain why, but to keep this article simple and easy to understand, it is because the governments are printing money out of thin air. That is how our million shrank in value if it is kept static in the bank.

But banks offer high interest rates!

Well that’s spot on! But you’re not told the next few points. Your savings account’s interest rates are never higher than the inflation rate and that the interest on your capital is also taxed like a normal employee.

You see, bad advice comes almost from every corner of our society, even from your education institute. Here is another, “You won’t lose a penny if you save your money in the bank”. Of course you wouldn’t lose a penny, the 1 million you saved in the bank 6 years ago will always remain 1 million (or more), and it is the behind-the-scene stuff like inflation that is seeping the value of the 1 million away.

However, with proper education and planning, you can turn a million dollars into a few millions or even billions if you’re that lucky.

So, if I have a million dollars, I will definitely not save it in the bank. This does not mean that I should go on a spending spree too.

It’s Sunday morning, I am not feeling that well but I had promised to go to Kirribilli Art and Design Market with my Aunt. I don’t think I’ll write much for this post because business is slow that day, not much to see around the market. It’s just very normal.

Kirribilli Art and Design Market is located at the bottom of the Northern part of Harbour Bridge, where many rich people from Sydney live there. It looks like a Thursday market but they sell only designed stuff there, mostly jeweleries. It started at about 8AM and closes at 3PM. Kirribilli Market only opens every second week of the month.

Bird Eye View

If you want to spend your Holiday in Australia, Kirribilli Art Market is not quite the place you might want to be in.

By the way, I was lazy that day so instead of selling(which means a waste of time when business is slow), I decided to walk the Harbour Bridge. There are a lot more to watch up there. Cool place.

I woke up as early as 6:30 to get ready. My breath is like a chimney in the morning wind. Myself, Aunt Sarah and PingLian(cousin, visit PingLian.com ) drove all the way down from Chatswood to Paddington to open PingLian’s art market. It’s so cool here, we can throw all the PingLian’s draw at our selling corner, then go jogging and nobody will take your stuff. They don’t even touch them! In Boleh-land if we do that, it’s a goner.

So after jogging, we came back to Paddington Art and Craft Market to establish our own stall.

Cool huh? There are bookmarks, canvas, window, limited and various types of photocopied PingLian draws. I did not take individual pictures, if you want to view them you can go to the gallery view at PingLian.com.

The market opens at about 8:30AM (i think) until 4 PM. Most of the time it’s Aunt Sarah that’s doing the job. I only did other kind of stuff like packing and arranging, the easy job… for the newbie. Hoho, but because of me, Aunt Sarah peaked her sale today. I bring luck man.

I noticed the many Australians love PingLian’s art very much. Seriously, try to visit PingLian’s website online or come find us at Paddington Art and Craft Market every Saturday (not open on Youth Day).

Oh, I took my lunch break to get some pictures for you guys.

LOL. When I’m choosing which stall to buy from. These 2 guys were singing with their cute guitars there. Sorry mate, I just had to include you in my blog. Pay me because I’m publicizing you.

The first thing I bought in Sydney. A waffle named “Devil” at La Waffle stall in Paddington Market. Looks yummy huh? I’m going to try other types of waffle next time.

My lunch, hotdog with cheese. Looks ugly, tastes ugly. Waste my AUD6.50. No more hotdog from that store.

Then I saw this … *SHOCK* … so the sweet corns at Boleh-land is genetically modified? Genetically modified corns that have the ability to mutate like “The Hulk”? What the …

Then I saw this stall after eating. Seriously, sometimes before we go into a massage center. We go in with a :) then leave it with :( . Because the during the massage, the experience of your muscles are being squashed and your bones being pressured makes you wanna cry! On top of that, it’s darn expensive !

You can even see like dozens of dogs the whole day. But who needs a damn dog when I can choose to have the Wizard of the Oz’s Robot (doggie style). I don’t need to feed it, tame it, sleep it or what so ever. For those who doesn’t know, here’s the picture for the robot of Wizard of the Oz.

The Paddington Art and Craft Market closes at 4PM because sun sets at about 5PM. Paddington Art and Craft market is also another must-go place if you want to spend your holiday in Australia

So we got home by about 6PM and Sherlyn made us the best baked rice I’ve ever tasted. Better than Kim Gary, stupid restaurant.

Oh and tomorrow I will be going to another market at Kiribilli. What a weird name.