March 2009 Archives

People are always busy in the corporate environment. So busy sometimes that they will wait even a week before responding to your email.

I understand how busy people can be but sometimes I think it's just a bit of laziness. How often do you receive an email from someone, know the answer, but don't respond right away because you say to yourself that you'll do it later? Happens all the time.

If you're not going to respond to someone in a timely manner, at least be courteous enough to tell them you'll get back to them later. </end rant>

The one big lesson we should all learn from this financial crisis is that we should be educating our new generations how to personally manage their own money.

Seriously, this is a no-brainer. Are we that stupid to not start teaching our kids how to manage their own finances?

I graduated high school in the year 2000 and not once was I ever offered a personal finance class. This should be a mandatory class for every single student in the United States.

No more letting the credit card companies continue to make money off of others. Just pay off the balance each month. Save as much as you can. Open a Roth IRA. Don't waste money on interest. We should be teaching kids these simple principles.

Who will make the curriculum? Anyone?

CANADA is even starting to require the course. When will we?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Setting Goals in a Bad Economy [Money] (lifehacker.com)
• Make Real Life 101 part of school curriculum (thestar.com)

Every two weeks I see a portion of my paycheck going to a social security fund. I'll also receive a letter in the mail every now and then showing me how much I have contributed each year to Social Security.

I didn't sign up for this and I don't want to contribute. There are more beneficial ways to save for my own retirement such as 401k's and Roth IRA's.

Instead of the government taking my money and bailing out those that make bad business decisions, I should have the option of contributing to Social Security programs or not.

We all know that the younger generations will not have these funds available to them in the future. US Government: please let me opt-out of Social Security contributions. Even the house in the logo has a big crack in it.

It certainly came as a shock when I received a letter in the mail from Capital One. An increase from 11% to 29% APR is no small amount. I always pay off my balance in full each month, but this increase will still hurt many in the long run.

Capital One was very explicit about opting out too. They said if you want to opt-out just call customer service and cancel your account.

I'd like to cancel my account, but is it better for your credit score to have longer credit history?

I like Capital One less and less every day for a few reasons. One reason is the really high APR. Another reason, which doesn't happen to me very often, is that if you hit your credit limit they slap your account with a $40 overage fee instead of simply declining the charge.

It's all just a money making scheme. Large companies making money off of other people's inability to manage their own money.