Give Me Some Credit Here: One Girl’s Search for the Perfect Piece of Plastic

For as long as I can remember I’ve been raised frugal, imbued with a pathological fear of credit cards and a tendency to pinch pennies ‘til they scream. Growing up, we were taught to think of “debt” and “loan” as four-letter words. Everything gets paid for up front, even my car (which I definitely look upon as a blessing, even if my checkbook took a bigger-than-usual hit). I’ve gone for nearly twenty-five years without even one of those little plastic nightmares. I see and talk to so many people that consider credit cards to be the bane of their existence. Why on earth would I want one?

Then it hit me, as so many things in my impending adulthood have. I might just want to buy a house someday, get myself one of those quintessential symbols of the American Dream. Barring a major lottery win or future runaway bestseller, I really don’t see myself having $100,000+ in one place at one time. More than likely I’m going to need a l**n—er, loan. (Sorry, old habits die hard.)

Following a simple train of reverse logic—which is a train I could probably stand to follow more often, but I digress—in order to buy a house, I’ll need a loan. In order to get a decent loan, I need (at the very least) decent credit. In order to get decent credit, I’ll need to build decent credit. In order to build decent credit, I’ll need to get one of those problematic pieces of plastic with way too much interest involved, and no, I don’t mean Joan Rivers.  

Currency Substitutes: The Good, the Bad, and the “Wait…what?”

 

 

 

 

Fill in the blank: “I would sell my firstborn for ____.” (A private jet? A new iPhone? A lower interest rate?) Whatever your answer, most of us throw the phrase around to describe the price we’d pay for something we desperately want or need, though we don’t mean it in a literal sense. For a woman in Kothagudem, India, however, this became an unfortunate reality as she struggled to pay her hospital bill.

The 20-year-old woman, known only as Rajitha, found herself abandoned by her husband and faced with a $60 hospital bill she couldn’t pay. In their infinite wisdom, the hospital allowed for her to sell the baby boy she was charged to deliver in the first place. The baby ended up being sold for $180 to a rickshaw driver and his wife, who happened to be friends of Rajitha’s. As you might expect, selling a baby would fall under the category of “illegal,” so naturally police are investigating both the hospital and the couple, who may face 10 years in prison.

As for Rajitha and her son, welfare officials are working to reunite them, putting them in a state-run facility until she can decide if she wants to put her baby up for adoption. All I know is that I’d hate to be the one to go to that hospital and not be able to afford, say, brain surgery.

http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=17708&cid=2

 

Signs and Co-Signs—Financial Education (Part 2): Senate Bill 834: More Exciting Than it Sounds

Today I’d like to talk to you about the passing of Michigan’s Senate Bill—wait, don’t go! I’m not here to bore you to death, honestly. Trust me on this one. I don’t know about you, but typically, poring over senatorial rulings and laws and fine print is about as exciting for me as standing in line at the DMV. What do I care about the mounds and mounds of paperwork involved if Illinois, say, wants to change its’ Official State Reptile from the Painted Turtle to Rod Blagojevich? Senate Bill 834, on the other hand, is yet another in a series of financial education rulings that are both relevant and logical. (Do try to contain yourselves.)

Without further ado, Senate Bill 834 would allow for Michigan school districts to offer a financial literacy course as an option for earning math credits toward graduation. High schoolers are required to gain 4 class credits in math before they can graduate, and the new law makes financial literacy and option for one of the four credits. Passed on December 2, 2008 by a unanimous vote, it seems to be yet another step in the right direction. It’s not forcing kids to do anything (other than graduate), and in the words of Senator Michael Switalski (D-Roseville) who sponsored the bill, students “would benefit from learning to analyze options on whether to rent or buy a house or car. Students should also know what adjustable rate mortgages and interest rates are and how they operate. I also believe that students would be fascinated by whether to take their lottery winnings up front or to take them spread out over 20 years. This bill allows them the option to learn these concepts in the classroom.”

If I had that opportunity in high school, I would certainly have chosen that class over the extra year of Algebra II that the bill also offers. (I guess there’s only so long that you can solve for x before you start wishing that x would just pick a value and stick with it.) Tune in next week to hear me tell those young whippersnappers about how when I was their age, we didn’t even have money, much less education on how to use it.

Sources

• http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/publicact/pdf/2008-PA-0316.pdf

• http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/billintroduced/Senate/pdf/2007-SIB-0834.pdf

• http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2007-2008/billanalysis/Senate/pdf/2007-SFA-0834-A.pdf

Competitive Shoplifting and Blowtorch House Fires: Still More Signs of a Struggling Economy

In these troubling times, it seems nothing says “recession” quite like steaks down your pants. At least, this is the case at some Cincinnati grocery stores, at which people have been arrested for attempting to smuggle T-bone steaks, one with a record eight stuffed into his trousers. (While I’m honestly not sure if there’s a Guinness entry for “Most Steaks Stuffed Down One’s Pants at a Given Time,” I’m sure that this individual would be a contender.)

This just in: “North Carolina Reader Sues News & Observer for Reduction in Quality.” That may not have been how the headline read, but it was certainly what happened. Citing reduced staffing due to layoffs, a reader of the Raleigh-based newspaper is suing them for what seems to be offended sensibilities. You might think that in an effort to save money during our current economic crisis, he might either A: switch papers, or B: stop subscribing altogether. Instead he goes with option C: throw large wads of money at a lawsuit he may or may not win that could otherwise go towards things such as groceries. (I personally choose to interpret this as yet another argument to bring back “Calvin and Hobbes,” but that may just be me.)

Even TV debt gurus don’t seem to be immune these days. British savings expert Lorne Spicer, host of “Cash in the Attic” and the BBC’s online credit consultant, filed bankruptcy last month with debts “believed to be in the thousands.” As a friend told the Sun: “It just goes to show the credit crunch can have disastrous effects for everyone — even people who know the system inside out.” It only goes to show that, though many things in this day and age have gone down, levels of irony remain the same.

While this may not be directly related to our current economy, it could be yet another attempt to save money by a cash-strapped individual. Rather than spend money on salt or ice-melting products, a Massachusetts man used a blowtorch to melt ice in his house, resulting in a house fire and tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage. Salt would have been simpler, but he could always just sue the blowtorch company for reduction in quality.

Extreme Job Hunting—Catwoman Costume Not Required

No, it’s not the latest reality show on TLC, though it’s definitely become a reality for many across the country. As the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and what may have been thought of as an outlandish shot in the dark this time last year may seem creative and enterprising now. It’s amazing the changes a recession can make in one’s sense of perspective, as shown in examples like these:

Wear Your Skills on Your Sleeve

Take your work to the streets—by wearing it on your shirt. Peggy Greco is a private duty registered nurse with an idea to get a job and get in shape at the same time. The 53-year-old native of Hobe Sound, Florida made a T-shirt with her website and phone number, and wears it on bike rides where she lives. Though she hasn’t gotten a job yet, Greco says that not only has she already gotten a few calls, but she’s lost about five pounds in the process.

Kelly Kinney, 29, seems to have taken Greco’s idea one step further, putting her cover letter on the back of her shirt, with her resume on the front under the words “I NEED A JOB!” Kinney, who is looking for a position in marketing management, has been to a few interviews since putting her strategy into play and hoped to have an offer by the end of that week.

Perhaps the most successful and well-known proponent of this strategy is investment banker Joshua Persky. After a layoff and 11 months of job searching, Persky decided to throw caution to the wind. He stood outside Park Avenue in a business suit and sandwich board, which read “Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire,” passing out copies of his resume to potential employers. His strategy paid off when accounting firm Weiser LLP hired him in June, and he was subsequently dubbed “the new face of the American economy.”

Bribery: It Pays Off

Or at least it does in the cases of Jacob Share and Therese Tetzel. Tetzel, 52, sent her resume and cover letter to the CEO of Quaker State in Dallas. What made her offering so unique was the inclusion of a bottle of champagne with a note encouraging the CEO to check her credentials with her resume in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other. Two days later she was hired. (Though I personally can’t help but wonder how it would have gone had the CEO been a teetotaler.)

Jacob Share went the bribery route as well, though his offer was a cash prize of $150 to whoever led him to a job. It started with an email that Share, 33, sent to his family and friends containing his resume and job search objectives. He asked them to forward his information on, and the person who helped him land a job as a Web development manager would win the $150. Needless to say, it worked.

Three-Piece (Chicken) Suits: How Far is too Far?

Extreme job hunting strategies don’t always pay off, however, and these strategies tend to involve animal costumes. It took a dozen interviews with no job offer to get Tyler Goldman to resort to the “singing man in a bird suit” ploy. The man delivered Goldman’s proposal to the office of sports attorney Leigh Steinberg while singing, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” He didn’t do this for long, however, before Steinberg’s secretary kicked him out of the office.

One of the most well-known examples of extreme job hunting happened in 1992 with actress Sean Young. In an attempt to secure the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns, Young arrived on a Warner Brothers studio lot sporting a homemade Catwoman costume. Anyone who has ever seen the movie knows the outcome—Sean Young was denied the part, which went instead to Michelle Pfeiffer.

So now that you know what strategies do and don’t work, happy hunting, everyone! Just remember, ladies and (possibly) gentlemen, to leave the Catwoman suit at home.

Sources

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/pf/0901/gallery.unconventional_job_searches/index.html

http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/29/extreme-job-hunting-lead_cz_np_1229career.html

http://20somethingfinance.com/blog/2009/01/20/extreme-job-hunting-strategies/

Signs and Co-signs—Financial Education (Part 1): Finance 101 for Seniors: Why New Jersey’s Got it Right

Wow, a law that makes sense. I know, I was shocked too, but there it is. In September, the Senate Education Committee of New Jersey passed a measure requiring Personal Finance 101 for high school seniors. The three-year pilot program will be confined to six school districts for now, but if logic and the financial needs of the times prevail, this will hopefully spread like the chicken pox (but with more positive results).

In these experimental classes, seniors will learn startlingly relevant lessons on how to write checks, manage credit card debt, and obtain a mortgage, among other topics. The current plan is for these lessons to be part of a class focused on personal finance, although the New Jersey Education Association is in favor of incorporating them into existing classes, such as economics or math.

There are, of course, concerns regarding the cost of this new program. Critics cite a school curriculum that’s overcrowded as it is, and that school officials, like everyone else, aren’t exactly swimming in money a la Scrooge McDuck these days. To add in a new course, schools would have to either replace an existing one, or extend the school day, which would raise costs even more (not to mention make for more pronounced outbreaks of that condition known as “senioritis”).

Despite these obstacles, however, I am entirely in favor of this. While financial education would ideally be taught in the home, the reality is that this frequently is not the case, and sometimes the most useful life lessons remain untaught. On the blog Generation X Finance, blogger Jeremy muses, “Would high school graduates be better off knowing that Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer that discovered the Mississippi River, or knowing that you can ruin your life with just a small piece of plastic?” Despite being the history buff that I am, it really makes me wonder.

Sources:

• http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj–xgr-financiallite0126jan26,0,2681347.story

• http://genxfinance.com/2009/01/26/new-jersey-bill-to-require-personal-finance-101-for-high-school-seniors/

• http://www.jerseysmarts.com/2009/02/02/more-on-financial-education-in-new-jersey/

• http://activerain.com/blogsview/904911/NJ-High-Schools-May-be-required-to-teach-Seniors-Finance-101

Support America: Buy A Doggie Treadmill!

Support America: Buy a Doggie Treadmill!

And with this doggie treadmill, your patriotism and devotion to pulling America up from the mires of recession will go without question. Who cares if it might run you anywhere from $489.99 to $2,995? You’ll be helping the economy, not to mention helping Fido burn off that extra helping of table scraps. At least this is the way the treadmill’s advertisers present it: “Overpriced? Probably. Unnecessary? Entirely. A gift for not only yourself and your dog, but the entire U.S. economy? Absolutely.” This advertisement, as presented in The Washington Post, is just one example of the effect the economic downturn is having on our already mad, mad, mad, mad world.

At a high school in San Diego, you may soon be able to answer exam questions on the War of 1812 while receiving a deodorant sales pitch and learning that the journey is its own reward. Tom Farber, a math teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School, has begun selling space at the bottom of test papers to parents and local businesses for an assortment of advertisements and inspirational quotes. According to Farber, his yearly allowance from the school decreased due to budget cuts, and there is not enough money in it to cover all the paper needed for his 167 students. Going rates are $10 per ad on a quiz, $20 for a test, and $30 for a final, so get ‘em while they’re hot.

If you’re a banker who wants to enjoy a production at the Cambridge Arts Theater in England but without the heckling, keep your profession a secret. At a performance of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” a group of bankers learned this the hard way as the cast read out “hellos” to different groups in the audience. When the cast reached them on the list, not only did they not stop the audience from booing, but joined in, echoing a sentiment sure to be widely felt but rarely expressed so openly.

Around the world, people are seeing a need to cut back on excess expenses: car, hot tub, spouse…yes, you read that right. State media in China report that more and more people across the country are considering divorce, as evidenced by a recent spike in rates of inquiries made to divorce lawyers. They cite the recent recession as a cause, and Shu Xin of the China Divorce Service Center claim that “Wealthy spouses were keen to strike a deal while asset values were low.”

Right now, you’re probably wondering what we can do in trying times such as these. Maybe it’s time to make a trip to Fish’s Eddy in New York, to take advantage of their “Economy Sucks Sale.” Who knows, you may find an automatic self-cleaning litter box ($329), for up to 75% off the list price. Your cat and your country are depending on you.