"Using Your Degree" is not always a good thing

I was greatly entertained by this article that appeared in today's Evening News. This guy is a chemist, and he got arrested for using his degree. What's so bad about that you ask? Well, he was using it to make a key meth ingredient. Oops.

Here are my two favorite quotes from the article:

Brown’s attorney, Drew Adams, said his client testified during trial that he had sold red phosphorous but for the purpose of making fireworks. It was only later that he began to suspect it was being used to make meth, Adams said.

This guy is either incredibly stupid or the worst liar in history. His response under oath should have been "On the advice of counsel, I am taking the 5th".

Brown, who according to prosecutors had a chemistry degree from the University of Wisconsin and worked 20 years at a precision screw machine and plastic injection molding facility in Jeffersonville, told detectives that he had been fired and needed a way to earn money. He later admitted he was fired because he was caught using meth.

Employers sure are funny about things like that.

There's a reason you have to "swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". It is true he had been fired. The whole truth is he'd been fired because the was using meth. The whole story is much more illuminating.


My coworkers and I got many laughs from this article. I hope you did too.

P.S. I talked to our chemist at work, and she says she has no plans to follow in this guy's footsteps.

Mind Over Money (2nd in a series)

Article link

STEP 2: Face your fear.
It's like shining a light into the closet of a scared child: Whatever she sees in there is going to be less frightening than the scaly thing with all the heads that terrorizes her imagination.


On the other hand, I'm afraid that if I take a hard look at my finances I'll discover an unmitigated disaster. But no matter how bad it is (and it's rarely as bad as you think) there are concrete steps you can take to change your situation.

I was talking with someone about this the other day. She works for a financial planning company. She said so many people are afraid because of a lack of knowedge. I agreed and told her "Knowledge is the mortal enemy of fear". The example of the child above illustrates that so well. She's scared not because of what's in the closet but because she doesn't know what's in the closet. As humans it is so easy to let the "what ifs" turn to fear that rules our life.

As it says above, reality is rarely as bad as your fears. Even if it is that bad or worse, you now know how bad it is and can make a plan. Otherwise it's like a doctor making a diagnosis without asking you any questions about what's wrong or performing an exam. You would just walk into the office, the doctor says you have "x condition and we'll do y to treat it". You wouldn't trust your health to someone's random guess, and you owe your money the same respect.

Real Life Example
A few years ago Larry Winget had a show called "Big Spender". Each show was essentially a financial intervention for an individual or couple. I'll never forget the couple who never opened their bills. They just took the unopened envelopes and threw them in a basket. It was a BIG basket. One of their first assignments was, surprise!, they had to open all the bills and find out where they really were.

Summary
It's like taking a trip- You have to know where you are now to figure out how to get to your destination.

Some things to find out if you don't already know:

1. What's your credit report look like?

You can get your free reports here

Note: Most credit reports contain errors. Read over yours carefully, and follow the dispute process given to fix them. If you don't know your credit scores, purchase them AFTER you've fixed errors to your report.

2. What do you have in assets?
- Checking account(s)
- Savings account(s)
- Retirement account(s)
- Stocks
- Bonds
- Value of car(s)
- Value of real estate
- Anything other assets not mentioned

3. What do you have in debts?
- Mortgage
- Student loans
- Credit card debt
- Car loans
- Personal loans
- 401(k), 403(b), etc. loans (you borrowed it, it's a debt)
- Home equity loan
- Any other debts not mentioned

If you really want to go all out, subtract your debts from your assets to get your net worth.

Yes, I know it can be scary, but remember "knowledge is the mortal enemy of fear".

Mind Over Money (1st in a series)

This weekend I read this article about money in Ladies Home Journal. Yes, guys, I KNOW it says "ladies", but trust me, it's got great advice applicable to both genders. It hit on so many points about money that I agree with and/or have seen in real life. I liked it so much, I'm writing a series of entries about it. Let's get started!

"As my friend Kathleen puts it, "Once a week I say to my husband, 'Can you please not get hit by a truck? I don't even know the account passwords!'" (And this is a woman who owns her own wildly successful consulting business.)"

How many of you said "Do what?". How many of you said "So what?". Probably around 1/2 of each. Why do I say that? I read once that in each couple there is usually one money nerd who loves dealing with money, can talk all day about ways to manage money, etc. The other person is usually grateful for this because he or she HATES dealing with money, is thrilled not to have to be bothered, etc. (Guess which type of person I am? Hmm)

There is nothing wrong with one person being the lead person for the couple's finances, but there's something absolutely wrong with the other person being completely clueless, whether is is by choice or or by default. Life happens to us all. Let me give you some real life examples

Real Life Example #1
A friend of the family divorced after many years of marriage. My dad had to take him around and show him how to pay bills. The guy HAD NO IDEA how to do this as his wife had always handled it.

Real Life Example #2
I was talking to my mom about how unbelievable I found Real Life Example #1. She said "If something happened to Family Member X, Family Member Y would be the same way". Yep, Mom's right.

Real Life Example #3
I'm not sure how it came up, but one day my coworker and I were discussing the two examples above. She has been married many years, and she said it was crazy for one person to be so in the dark about how to handle the bills. A couple of weeks later, her husband was severely injured in a freak accident at work. She said she knew he wasn't feeling well when he didn't ask her to bring the checkbook to the hospital! She told me later "I thought about you" since we had discussed this very issue a few weeks prior. She knew where everything was and was able to care of it. She said she didn't do it "like he would have done it", but each person has his/her own money style. She handled everything just fine. I told her today about the magazine quote above, and again she said "that's crazy".

Take Away
If you are in a relationship, you both need to know what to do "just in case". Come up with a system that works for you. One of our VPs at work reconciles the bank statements while her hubby pays the bills. It's their system. Find one that works for you NOW. Not next week, NOW. You never know when you may need it.

A Tale of Two Sales Experiences

Recently I received a letter from the local Toyota dealership with a coupon for a free tool set and the possibility of other prizes. I thought "why not" and decided to go. I realized of course that they'd try to sell me something, but I had no idea the amount of high pressure sales tactics they would use before giving me my gift.

As soon as I stepped out of my car last night, the first question from a salesperson was "Do you want to buy a car?" This is a car dealership after all, so a fair question. I said "No, I'm here to redeem my voucher". I was taken inside, where the salesperson took down a few pieces of info, then again asked "Do you want to buy a car?" and began his spiel. I again firmly said "No". He continued his pitch for a minute or two, then stepped away. When I noticed he was out of view (the showroom is large and open, and even the side offices are floor to ceiling windows), and he was gone longer than it should reasonably take to grab a tool kit, I began to get that feeling. If you ever been around car dealerships, you know the old "disappearing to talk to a manager" routine.

Surely enough, a few minutes later here comes a guy in a suit. At my work we always say that people coming to the door in suits mean people trying to sell you something. The first words out of his mouth were "Hi, I''m X, and I'm one of the sales managers here". Below is a summary of the rest of the conversation.

SM= Sales manager
M= Me
(comments)

M "Do you have my gifts?"
SM "No, we have to register you"
(Then what was the first guy doing?)

M "Ok, let's go"
SM "Why are you in such a hurry to get your gifts?
M "I have things to do"
(I did, and they didn't include wasting my time there)

SM "We can make you a great deal", other random selling buzz phrases, etc.
M "No, my car is paid for, and I plan to drive it for a long time"
(Getting more frustrated by the minute here)

SM "What do you drive now and how many miles does it have?"
M "I drive an X with Y miles"
SM "How much do you think you could get for it"
M "I could sell it for at least Z"
SM "What if I gave you more than Z?"
(This whole process is a shell game. More money for a trade in means they charge you more for the car, DUH!)
M "No, I don't want any car payments"

SM "What if I made your payments for the first year?"
M "I don't want any car payments EVER"
(When I have to buy another car, I'm buying whatever I can purchase with my cash on hand)

SM "You could make a good investment-"
M "Anything that depreciates in value is not an investment"
(You could tell he didn't get that response often, and he had to agree with me. You know that had to hurt)

The conversation seemed to lose steam about then. Shortly thereafter he finally got up and left. I stood up too. It was time to use more forceful body language to show that I was done (should have already been obvious though by my tone) and wanted my stuff now. As I stood by the door (more body language) I saw an older couple who looked to be in the process of buying a car. The lady was on oxygen, and I felt so badly for her if they were being forced to put up with the intolerable high pressure tactics I did. I didn't stand at the door long before the first salesperson finally brought my gifts. I hopped in my car and was out of there.

 This was by far the most high pressure, most terrible customer treatment I have ever been subjected to at a car dealership in my life. Instead of using the opportunity to treat me well and make a good impression for later, they made me HATE their dealership and rant about it on my blog. Not smart at all.

Contrast that with my experience at Best Buy a day earlier. I need to buy an IPad for work. The person at the front of the store showed me exactly where to go. After waiting a minute or two for the salesperson to help the customer in front of me, he asked what I needed. I told him, he said "Ok", was gone about a minute, and brought it out to me. He said "Do you have any questions?" I said "no", and I was on my way to check out. No hard sell for accessories, warranty, etc. It was FANTASTIC. The cashier later told me he's their top computer sales person. I see why. He listened to both my questions and what my body language was saying. I just wanted the Ipad, no hard sell. That's how a great salesperson works.

In summary:
Jeff Wyler Toyota- AWFUL
Best Buy- AWESOME

Quote of the day

"It costs to be beautiful"
- My coworker to another coworker who was complaining (aka whining) about how much it cost to get some shirts embroidered with our logo. While I don't think the coworker to whom it was said enjoyed it much, I did and think everyone else in earshot did too.

Week of 9/27

Quote of the Week
"You can dress up garbage, but it's still garbage"
- A man describing the reason behind his divorce to me.

I loved this quote. So simple, says so much. I quoted it to a co-worker who is getting divorced. He absolutely loved it, plans to use it, wanted to credit it to me. I told him no, the originator's name is Chad, he deserves for it to be known as his.



Interesting Thing My Job Taught Me This Week
If you are in arrears on child support over a certain amount, you are prohibited from getting a passport. If you have one, it'll be confiscated. Moral of the story- Pay up



How to Begin the End of Your Career at Your Current Employer
When the Vice President of your area asks you a serious question in  a group meeting, laugh at him. Out loud. Yep, someone did that at my work. His days are numbered.



Favorite Bible Verse
I was reading the book of Judges last week, and I came across what is probably my favorite Bible verse of all time.

"But the hair on Sampson's head began to grow again after it was shaved" (Judges 16:22, NIV).

Probably never heard anyone ELSE quote that one as a favorite have you? If you aren't familiar with the story, Sampson was given the gift of great strength. However, Sampson made some poor life choices. He ended up being betrayed by the woman he loved. His head was shaved, causing him to lose his strength. His enemies captured him and gouged out his eyes. Then they put him in prison.

This verse is the next verse in the story. Why do I like it so much? Sampson was a guy who'd been given so much, but he seemingly lost it all by doing dumb things. In other words, his is just like you and me. But the story doesn't end there. God is a God of second, third, seven hundred and eighty-fourth chances. In the end God helps Sampson exact great revenge on those who had done such damage to him.

Life lesson: No matter what your past, God has a future for you.



Bonus verse from the Story of Sampson
"If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle" Judges 14:18

P.S. The heifer was his wife to be. Read the story. It's a good one.