The Five Things To Do When The Money Runs Out
June 8, 2009 | 40 Comments
I get a lot of email from people who have either lost their jobs or are losing their jobs. Their 401K is gone, their savings is zeroed out or maybe their unemployment checks have run out. This is becoming a common situation for a good part of our society as unemployment rises. Many people are facing a lack of employment and a lack of funds. Yet their family still needs to eat and the bills still have to be paid. Does this apply to you? I hope it doesn’t. But I am betting that you know someone who is in this situation.
It’s too late to tell people they should have saved more (six months cash set aside to cover your monthly expenses.) It’s too late to say you should have worked harder or smarter or better so you wouldn’t have been the one who got laid off (not always the case but it is often the case.) It’s too late to say that you shouldn’t have spent so much money on stupid stuff – that you shouldn’t have wasted money on things that gave only very temporary satisfaction – that you shouldn’t have gone out to eat 4 nights a week or bought that car you couldn’t really afford or that house you knew you couldn’t make the payments on if anything happened to your income. It’s too late to beat people up about any of that stuff at this point, so I don’t and I won’t.
Instead, it’s time to give folks some ideas they can use when it’s crunch time, they are scrambling and when survival is the main concern. So here you go:
Feel the fear, suck it up and CHANGE!
March 30, 2009 | 16 Comments
Change bothers some folks. The very idea of changing their routines or habits makes their poor little hearts beat harder. Usually, it is because they are so comfortable in the rut they have dug, that even if they are headed down the wrong path, they will stay on it because it doesn’t involve any change.
People sit in room they hate because they don’t have the energy or the inclination to change the furniture around or to paint the room. People are afraid to look in the mirror or step on the scale because they know they are overweight and to change their result, they would have to change the way they eat. I know people who are afraid to go to the doctor for fear of finding something wrong simply because it would change their lifestyle. This list could go on and on. You can think of dozens of ways people you know fear change. You probably even have areas in your life that you are afraid to change.
As for me, I love change. I have routinely moved offices every couple of years. I move houses a lot too. I would buy a new house and move every two years if I could talk my wife into it. I have lived in my current house for five years which is nearly an all time record for me. Change is exciting to me. It gives me a chance to clean up and clean out and to go to work on a new space. It’s like starting over physically and psychologically. I make changes in my personal life as well. I like to try new things and go new places and do things I haven’t done before.
However, the reality is that most people won’t change – even when they know they should. Why? Lots of reasons. Fear is certainly one of them.
Nip it in the bud! Nip it!
April 5, 2008 | 20 Comments
Remember that line by Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith Show? Barney was passing out parenting advice to Andy about correcting a behavior of Opie’s. He told Andy, “Nip it in the bud. Nip it!” If you don’t remember the line, that’s okay, I’m an old guy and I loved Andy and Barney! But the point was a good one then and still is: When you see bad behavior, nip it in the bud.
I was reminded of this last night while watching Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer. Holy crap this guy is good. In the segment I am referring to, the dog, a big one, had food aggression. The owners could not go near the dog or the food bowl as the dog would growl, bark and nip at them. They had not done much to correct the problem and Cesar was quick to point out that since the behavior had not been corrected early in the dog’s development, that the aggressive behavior was now spreading to other areas way beyond the food. He said that if the aggression was not brought under control quickly and firmly that it wouldn’t be long before that dog was going to hurt someone. Then he took control and taught the dog owners how to take control. That’s his position: YOU are in charge of your environment and your dog - take control!
Great advice. Correct problems when you see them so they don’t spread and grow. Take control of your environment.
Good ideas when dealing with dogs and children. We have all seen children that have been allowed to get by with things that should have been corrected. And we all know that the bad behavior will spread and that the ill-behaved child will become bigger and bigger until, like the dog, someone is going to get hurt.
Now, let me slide that principle over to dealing with employees. When you allow an employee to get by with something, even a small infraction, that behavior when it goes uncorrected will grow until you have real problems. Let an employee get by with coming in late and soon that employee will never be on time. The problem will probably even spread to the other employees. You didn’t correct the problem with one employee, others noticed it and now they are developing bad behaviors. At that point, you are no longer the leader, you are following the pack - they are now in charge. (See the correlation between Cesar’s message and mine?)
In my life, I take it to the next level. I believe that when I see rudeness in other people in my regular life, that the rudeness must be addressed and corrected. (Or at least brought to their attention.) Now I am not naive enough to think that my comment to them is going to correct their rude behavior long term, but at least I have let them know that they don’t get to treat ME that way and they don’t get to behave that way in THIS situation.
That’s why in by past blog postings, I have told stories about how I speak up when someone is rude to me. I tell employees when they give me bad service. I refuse to accept poor behavior in others when it impacts my life. Some of you agree with me and let me know. Then there are others of you who say things like, “take the high road, Larry, let it slide.” It seems to me that the high road is what I have been taking. And answer this for me: How does letting it slide fix things?
I believe that when you ignore bad behavior in your dog, your child, your employee, or in others, you are condoning that bad behavior. That makes you guilty by association. If you and I go out one evening, and you decide to rob someone while I am standing there next to you and I don’t do anything to stop you, a court would find me guilty by association. In my court, if you tolerate or ignore bad behavior in others, you are just as guilty as they are. If I let my dog bite you I am going to be the one who pays the consequences. If my kid breaks your window by throwing a rock through it, I will be the one who pays the fine and replaces the window. If my employee treats you badly, I will pay the price by losing you as a customer. Ultimately, I will pay the price because I am responsible for my world. I should control my world.
Some of you like to point out that I tell people to stop whining and that my blogs are all about me whining about the service I get. Oh, come on! My blogs are meant to be entertaining little rants with a bit of a message that will 1) make you smile 2) make you think and 3) give you one little idea about something you can do to live a better life. Don’t make it into some earth shattering treatise on the human condition. This ain’t World Peace folks - it’s a blog! Have some fun - spout off a bit - move on. For those of you, who hate what I have to say and my opinion, this obviously isn’t the blog for you. Go away. I have made that clear in the past few days to a select few of you who don’t like me, don’t like my opinions, don’t like my other posters and by all appearances don’t like life itself! In other words, I nipped it in the bud!
Here is the deal: Bad behavior is unacceptable at any level. The reason it runs rampant is because so many of us “take the high road and let it slide.” I don’t believe that is the correct road to take. I believe that in order to turn things around, we must all refuse to accept bad behavior, at least in our own little world: With the people you pay your hard earned money to. With your employees. With your kids. With your dog! Will the world change? Maybe not, but at least YOUR world might.
Credit card commercial and Government stupidity
February 13, 2008 | 35 Comments
Okay, I am on a roll trashing stupid commercials. I think maybe it is the result of too much time stuck in hotel rooms while on the road. This is the newest one that pisses me off: Chase Bank, those good ol’ credit card people! Here is the commercial: A couple decides they need a new TV. He rushes to the electronic store and surrounds himself with big screen plasma television sets. Background music: I Want It All And I Want It Now. THAT IS A CLUE to why I have a problem! He grabs his cell phone and dials a number to check his available credit to see how much he can charge. The voice over says something to the effect that you can find out how much of the good life you can buy with a simple phone call encouraging him to max out his card to indulge himself and his wife.Chase should be ashamed. Promoting that I Want It All And I Want It Now mentality and then telling you to max out your entire credit balance on a big screen television. People SHOULD be smart enough to see through this stuff, but sadly they aren’t. People will stupidly watch this and think, “How cool! I should totally go get whatever I want because I deserve it and I can just charge it.” Do you need it? Who cares? Can you afford it? Why does that matter? Is it a good idea? Beats me! I just want it!!!!!!!That is the problem with the government’s new economic stimulus package as well: stupidity. We (the US Government) are going to borrow money from China (because we spent all our money on a stupid war) to give people some money they didn’t earn so they can go buy stuff made in China that they don’t need. Looks to me the economy that gets the most stimulus is China’s. Add to that the issue that most people will look at the money they get as a downpayment and won’t spend just what they are given but will spend much more. Why are we rewarding bad behavior and irresponsibility in people? Do people really need help spending? Isn’t that the basic problem anyway? Why don’t we reward things like saving and investing and putting away for healthcare and for a college fund? That makes more sense to me. I just don’t believe in rewarding spending and encouraging more spending.If you get some of that free government money (I won’t) I hope you don’t do what the government wants you to do. They want you to help retailers and the economy by spending the money at the mall. I want you to pay off those high interest credit cards you have. If you don’t have any high interest credit card debt, then save or invest the money. Be smarter than our government.Until next time.EXTRA EXTRA!!!!!!!!! Just got an email from a Chase executive. I admire them for making contact with me. That alone deserves respect in my books. They acknowledged to me that perhaps their true message was not clear enough. That the goal was to teach people NOT to buy the biggest but to get what they could afford based on their available credit. Sorry I missed it - I think Queen screaming out I want it all and I want it NOW!!!!!!! while flashing a credit card drowned out their intent - at least to me. Again, I respect Chase for making contact with me. They were very respectful of me and what I do so I give them CREDIT for that. I appreciate any effort to teach people to spend responsibly. In their words, “We are trying to establish a responsibility message (see www.chaseclearandsimple.com, which offers people a number of tools to help them pay on time and know theimpact of only making minimum payments.” I applaud any effort to help people do just that! I have said for years that credit card companies are NOT at fault for people being in a credit card mess. People sign the contract and then don’t live according to the document they signed. I do not believe predatory lending runs rampant as many would lead you to believe. I believe big boys and girls sign papers and agree to payment plans and then don’t keep their word. Then when there are consequences, they cry ‘Foul!”This is full disclosure between me and you, them and me and now all of us. I think it is refreshing to see people COMMUNICATE their differences and talk things out openly.Larry
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