modern life

Customer service: How to get the answer you want.

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My daughter, who has a chronic illness, often deals with bureaucracies. Once she told me something very wise: If you don’t get the answer you want, ask it again – just in a different way.

This is an excellent tactic for all sorts of customer service issues. Here’s how it shook down for me earlier this week.

Some time ago DF and I bought a set of flannel sheets on clearance. DF thinks it was early spring, because he seems to recall that snow was still on the ground. Since our current linens weren’t yet completely raddled, we put the new set on a closet shelf.

Fast-forward to seven or eight (or more) months. Time to use the new sheets! But when DF opened the package, planning to hang them on the clothesline to air, he noticed one edge of the top sheet was ragged. Not just badly sewn, but torn and scraggly.

And of course we didn’t have the receipt. Taping it to the package would have been intelligent.

 

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Alaska Permanent Fund: Capped, but still producing.

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I’m $1,100 richer today. So are a lot of other Alaskans: The Alaska Permanent Fund will distribute about $672 million to residents young and old.

Even toddlers will get that $1,100 direct deposit or check. That blows minds in the Lower 48, but it seems totally normal here.

It was supposed to have been more; one recent estimate was about $2,300. But this is the second year in a row that Gov. Bill Walker capped the Permanent Fund dividend, resulting in some serious outcry from eligible recipients.

There’s a reason for that. According to a study from the University of Alaska’s Institute for Social and Economic Research, the PFD has traditionally lifted 15,000 to 25,000 Alaska residents out of poverty. The study also noted that reducing the check by $1,000 would likely send 12,000 to 15,000 more Alaskans down below the poverty line.

The annual payout is particularly important in rural Alaska: Without it, more than 20 percent of Bush residents would fall below the federal poverty threshold. I believe it, given the high cost of living out there. (Hint: If you think you pay too much for milk in your city, imagine forking over $10 a gallon.)

 

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Credit or debit? Here’s what consumers say.

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Recently the NerdWallet blog did a survey of more than 2,000 adults in the United States with regard to their use of plastic. Turns out that younger people prefer debit to credit.

The findings didn’t surprise me. But they did concern me.

Without credit use, you can’t build a good credit history. Without a good credit history, you will likely pay more interest than those without decent credit scores – that is, if you can get a loan at all.

This probably isn’t something people want to hear right after the Equifax data breach. But it’s something they need to know.

 

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In your 40s? Do these things or risk dying broke.

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Your fifth decade can be swell, since that’s when you’re in your prime earning years and when your kids (if any) are likely to be adults or nearly so.

If you were careful (and lucky) in your 20s and 30s, you’ll start to see some real rewards in your 40s.

Not every life is lucky, of course. Issues like un- or underemployment, divorce, chronic illness and a lack of financial education can derail your dreams. Nearly 30 percent of Gen Xers, who are currently in their 40s and early 50s, have zero retirement savings.

 

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Labor Day musings.

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A press release received today had this clickbaity line in the message field: “If you are not doing what you love…You are wasting your time!”

Huh.

I understand the likely intent: Be all that you can be! Reach for the stars! Follow your bliss! Yet my own inference is a little darker: If you aren’t a super self-made success in the high-profile career of your choosing, you’re kind of a loser.

Dark, I know. But I do wish that the people who define success would realize that we can’t all be startup successes or crowdfunded darlings. I wish that “success” could be redefined.

Specifically, I wish that fame and fortune weren’t the things we all apparently should want. Not only is this untrue, it’s a notion that tells a whole bunch of working-class people that they aren’t measuring up.

 

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Back to school without breaking the bank.

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Fun fact: According to the National Retail Federation, families in the U.S. will spend $10.2 billion on back to school shopping this year.

That fact may not be fun to parents on tight budgets. It’s not much fun to me, either, since I’ve long believed this kind of shopping has gotten out of hand.

Understand: I’m not saying your kids should get on the bus wearing clothes that are ill-fitting or in tatters, or that they shouldn’t have the tools they need for education. But to judge from the ads, our kids need all-new everything.

Hint: They probably don’t.

Obviously if a kid has outgrown his shoes (and they will do that!) then you’ll need to replace the footwear. Ditto jeans that are high-watery or a jacket whose sleeves stop a few inches short of the wrist. But it’s easy to fall down the rabbit-hole of overbuying.

 

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Credit myths, plus a chance to win “Playbook Vol. 2.”

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Pop quiz! True or false:

Closing a credit card always decreases your credit score.

It is possible to lock all of your credit reports at once.

Utility payments are always included in credit scores.

Marital status affects your credit report.

Checking your credit score has an impact on your credit report.

If you said “false” to all of these, then you’re ahead of a bunch of your fellow citizens. Anywhere from 31 to 51 percent of those surveyed didn’t know that, according to a new study from TransUnion.

Want to learn a little more? Check out my guest post on I Pick Up Pennies. It’s an excerpt from “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition” – and if you act soon, you might win a copy.

 

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My dog days, in summer.

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For 10 days I took care of my niece’s dog so she could make a trip out of state. By the end of the first day I remembered why I don’t want pets: Because it means being responsible for another living creature, all the time.

As someone who’s lucky that her socks match* when she leaves the house, being unable to leave the house without first dealing with the dog was a challenge.

It was a lot like having a toddler around. Whenever I couldn’t see him or hear him I had an immediate reaction of, “Uh-oh – what’s he into now?”

As of the first day: the trash, the recycling bin and something on the counter.

 

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Vanilla finances.

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Many LOLs were LOLed once I discovered a post called “Vanilla sex: Here, have another helping” on the How To Write Better website.

Writer, coach and humorist Suzan St Maur posted the piece as a way of poking fun at the idea of “vanilla sex,” i.e., conventional, ordinary (subtext: boring) physical love.

St Maur (not a typo – she doesn’t use the period after “St”) wondered if the adjective could be used for other things.

Apparently it can. A few of her examples:

 

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Living the ‘pre-solvent’ life.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday, everyone! This article originally ran on July 3, 2015. Its sentiments are as valid to me today as they were back then.)

Here’s today’s neologism, and it’s a great one: “pre-solvent.” It comes from a comment on a Money Talks News article called “The real reason Americans struggle to save.”

The article cited a couple of surveys that put the fault not in our stars, but in our cards: “Lifestyle spending” and “lack of financial discipline” kept anywhere from 44 to 71 percent of respondents living paycheck to paycheck and/or prevented them from achieving financial goals.

I’d like to point out that underemployment, lack of education and impossible-to-pay medical bills can also hinder the ability to save. But I agree that the “buy now, figure out how to pay for it later” attitude is definitely nudging some folks toward insolvency.

Which brings us to pre-solvency. A commenter named “Y2K Jillian” writes that she and her husband lived paycheck to paycheck for years and loathed the lifestyle. But change happened.

How? “Gradually, gradually.” Which is how I’d bet it happens for a lot of people.

 

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