Tada yori takai mono wa nai

"Tada yori takai mono wa nai. - Michihiro Matsumoto" I see this at the end of every mail from my Finance Management professor. This is what he signs off with. So today, I actually checked out what it means. It means "Nothing is costlier than something given free of charge." I read it and thought about it for a minute. Hmm... nice thought. So in other words, the time, affection and stuff I give to my near and dear ones are priceless. Hmmm... nice thought. And then I checked out an article with the phrase on the top of the search results. This quote was used to signify that "There is no such thing as a free lunch". It is going to cost you and cost you very dearly. The article refers to the uncountable number of free investment advice one gets in television, magazines and on websites and says that if you blindly follow all this free stuff without any due diligence, it is going to cost you dearly. I dont know whether this Japanese phrase was used as a pun or it really means this meaning. Wow! I am amazed by the double wisdom of this phrase.