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This time of year, “socially-conscious” adults and bratty kids try to make the case that Santa doesn’t exist. This is one of two ways to say the same thing that they will use: the other being there is no such thing as Santa. I believe in the truth at Finance For Youth, and I have always believed it is a bad idea to lie to young people. That being said, I can say that both of these arguments are BS!

Obviously, Santa has to exist. There are numerous accounts in several societies that point to a similar character. Some attribute this character to the Norse god Odin, others to Saint Nicholas, but the truth remains that at this time of year, there is a feeling of good-will that smacks of Santa Claus.

For me, Santa isn’t some fat guy in a red suit that likes reindeer and Coca-Cola; Santa is much more than that. Santa is the young person who gives up their seat on a bench for someone who has a lot of shopping bags and looks haggard. Santa is the person who sees someone ahead of them drop their wallet and chases after them to return it. In short, Santa is about doing those anonymous good acts that transcend religion and our own problems just to bring a small smile to someone else’s face. Sure, there are a lot of big problems out there that we can all focus on to fix, and we should try to work on those as well, but sometimes working on the small things is enough.

If you are doing some good thing for those less fortunate than you are, good for you. I think we can all learn from your example. If not, try to find something good to do for someone else. It doesn’t have to be something big. If possible, do it without anybody ever knowing it was you. Try doing it, and see if you can do it and still focus on the negatives; you’ll probably find that you can’t. If everybody did this, eventually, we would make some real progress in dealing with some big problems out there.

Merry Christmas to everybody! Remember your loved ones who are thinking of you and remember those who can’t be with you for whatever reason.

It is important to do well, but it is even more important to do good. That’s what guides me in my professional life. The idea that there are people out there with a lot of money who aren’t actively looking for ways to help others with no money saddens me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about giving away all your money, but if you have enough (and no, I’m not going to define ‘enough’), how much does it hurt to give some of the extra to someone who needs it?

I firmly believe that if more people felt the same way, we’d have a lot fewer problems in the world. Unfortunately, that’s just not what we are taught in America. So, when I see someone who does, I feel that we should celebrate these people. Hence, the first occasional “Finance For Youth; Financial Liberty through Financial Literacy” awards was born. The “Youthies” are about those people who really are about making their lives, and the world, better. I’m still kicking around some ideas for different categories, but doing good is definitely on the list. I’ll probably include other categories based on the QUALITIES OF SUCCESS, and maybe some others.

“But Wil, I know somebody that would be great for a “Youthie”. What should I do?” Good question. If you read something in the news and you think it’s worth nomination for a “youthie”, send me a link with a little commentary of what they did and why you think they deserve a “youthie”. Once I get the categories set up, I’ll run polls and allow you to vote for who you think should win the “youthie”.

What do they win? Well, actually, they win nothing. But it’s still kinda cool. Who knows, if this goes well, I might even award the submitter of a winner with a cool prize.

I really should be working on one of several papers I have to write for school, but something happened that screams for me to address here.

Since many of my readers are young, and have limited experience and skills, Customer Service is probably where many of you will start (and even finish) your career path. Customer Service should be a pretty simple concept for you to grasp: Your job is to help a customer fulfill their needs at your particular company. Doesn’t sound too hard, does it? Here’s my situation.

First, a little background. It’s that time of year when people spend a lot of money on things that other people probably don’t need, and I’ve been doing a lot of shopping online for presents. I detest going to malls at this time of year, and since many places offer items online that I couldn’t find near me anyways, most with free shipping, online is the way to go. My wife and I have decided that we were not going to buy anything on credit if we could avoid it. Luckily, we have planned and saved to make this a reality. So instead, I use my debit card. Aside from all of the arguments by people who like to use credit cards because they feel there is some potential benefit from doing so instead of using debit cards (they are wrong, by the way, but that’s a subject for another post), I like using my debit card because I really have faith in my financial institution. More than I do any of the companies that run my credit cards.

In what is really pretty common, one company placed a pre-authorization hold for the aggregate balance of my purchases there. For those who don’t know what a pre-authorization hold is, there is a whole process, but I’ll boil it down to this: When you use plastic to pay for something, it takes time for the transaction to work its way through the company’s bank and out of yours. During that time, the money you spent is spoken for. They have a right to that money (in most cases), so they hold it until the money can come out. The problem is that the transactions were not authorized in aggregate, but individually. So, the money came out individually. My financial institution didn’t know that I didn’t do one big transaction for the whole amount, so they were still waiting for that transaction would clear. It wasn’t a terribly big deal since I have a cushion to fall back on, but what happened was a little annoying. The aggregate amount was held, and each individual item came through. Again, I have more than enough money in the account, but because of the way the system works, my account was double dipped and I was assessed two fees for paying the items.

1. WHEN YOU GREET A CUSTOMER, TRY TO SOUND LIKE YOU CARE ABOUT THIS PERSON AND YOUR JOB.

Here’s where the problem comes in. I call my institution, and the rep who answers sounds like she is reading her greeting. Okay, a couple of things here: I used to work at the institution in question and I knew the girl who answered. In fact, I trained her when she first was hired. We’ve met. Once she saw my account, she still sounded robotic. Now, I know what you are thinking, “Wil, how many Wil Stantons are there in California that might bank with this institution? How was she to know it was you?” The answer to the first question is exactly one. Remember, I used to work there. That’s one of the first things that most people do when they work at a financial institution: They see if anyone with their name banks there. The second question has a little more merit, but for one thing. My institution has a nifty little feature that allows the account holder to give nicknames to their accounts. I love this feature, and I take full advantage of it. The nicknames I gave my account are memorable in their inappropriateness to a banking professional.

2. WHEN YOU ARE TALKING TO THE PERSON WHO TRAINED YOU, MAKE SURE YOU ARE ON YOUR BEST GAME. DON’T MAKE YOUR TRAINER FEEL LIKE THEY WASTED THEIR TIME WITH YOU.

I explained the situation, told her I knew that this wasn’t something they did purposely, but I asked if she could fix the problem or refer me to someone who could. I knew that this would be done with no problems, so I didn’t think the conversation would be very long. She put me on hold without asking and was gone for a long time.

3. IF YOU ARE ON THE PHONE WITH A CUSTOMER, AND YOU HAVE TO PUT THEM ON HOLD, ASK THEIR PERMISSION AND WAIT FOR THEM TO RESPOND BEFORE YOU PUT THEM ON HOLD.

4. DON’T PUT SOMEONE ON HOLD FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME WITHOUT A VERY GOOD REASON. IT’S BETTER TO CHECK IN ON THE PERSON AND LET THEM KNOW WHY THERE IS A DELAY.

When she finally came back, she said that she would reverse the fees “as a courtesy”, but that I needed to make sure I kept enough money in my account so this wouldn’t be a problem again. Before I could respond, she said thank you for calling and hung up.

5. NEVER PATRONIZE YOUR CUSTOMER. IF THE MEMBER IS NOT WRONG, DON’T TRY TO MAKE THEM FEEL LIKE THEY ARE BY GIVING THEM A POINTLESS LECTURE.

6. IF YOU KNOW WHAT THE END RESULT OF A CUSTOMER REQUEST WILL BE, DON’T’ MAKE THE CUSTOMER JUMP THROUGH ADDITIONAL HOOPS IN ORDER TO MAKE THE END RESULT HAPPEN, JUST DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO.

7. WHEN CLOSING A CONVERSATION, ALLOW THE CUSTOMER TO ALSO CLOSE BEFORE HANGING UP (OR WALKING AWAY FROM THEM) AND MOVING TO THE NEXT PERSON.

Now, I’m not going to switch institutions, because this person was stupid. I’m not even going to contact her boss and point out the problems with my customer experience. I don’t believe doing so would change anything, and her particular manager is a complete idiot. She came on as I was on my way out of the company. But I’m not the kind of customer that they should worry about. Think about all the people that you piss off in a day and never see them again. Sure, they aren’t complaining about you to you or your boss, but I guarantee they are talking about your stupidity to their friends.

8. WHEN YOU SCREW UP AT WORK AND THE CUSTOMER DOESN’T COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU TO YOUR BOSS, DON’T THINK YOU ARE IN THE CLEAR. THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU AND YOUR COMPANY TO ALL OF THEIR FRIENDS AND THOSE FRIENDS ARE TALKING TO OTHER FRIENDS.

The problem is that you have no way of fixing the experience if the person doesn’t give you one. Best case scenario is that you only lose one customer. Chances are, you are also losing out on all those other customers that you never meet.

One of my co-workers has a situation that I thought would be perfect to use as an illustration of a very important point. She’s young (in her early 20’s), and like many of my readers, she is in a rock band! She’s actually a really good singer. She has a kid and a husband, and she isn’t really feeling all the love and happiness that she feels she should. She and I recently had a conversation about her going back to school to get a degree.

Me: So, what are you going back to school for? What do you want to be when you grow up?

Her: I’m going to a performing arts school. They do a lot of marketing, and it would help the band.

Me: Okay, but what if the band thing doesn’t wind up making it? Then what?

Her: I don’t know, I guess I could come back here and be a teller again.

There was more to it, but this is where things became important. She is passionate about her music, and that’s good. She is thinking about the future, and that’s good too. She wants to do better financially for herself and her family. Good for her!

Too often, I hear from young people, or I hear about young people who were talented at something, and forsook schooling and education to do the thing that made them happy. Sometimes I hear the adults in these young peoples’ lives telling them that they should do what makes them happy and worry about the rest of it later.

I used to be a pretty good athlete. I was good enough to make it as a professional Martial Artist at a very young age, and the temptation was there. Luckily, I got all that out of my system before it screwed up my life. Not that there is anything wrong with being a professional Martial Artist, but seriously, think about the job description there. You are limited to a few choices: 1.) Teach, 2.) Act, 3.) bouncing or private security, or 3.) Stunt work. That’s pretty much it. What I didn’t know then, that I do now, is that I was going to get a bad injury when I was about 19, and wouldn’t be able to engage in the same level of athleticism as I would have before. What I didn’t know, is that I was going to spend a large chunk of time recuperating and being out of fighting shape. What I did know, was that I couldn’t see myself wearing (what look like) pajamas to work everyday and taking myself seriously.

The thing is, and this is true whether you are talking about sports, acting, modeling, music, or any other “art”, there might be plenty of famous people who were able to “make it” without the benefit of a lot of formal education. Kobe Bryant is famous for being drafted to Charlotte without going to college, and there are others. The problem with putting too much relevance to performers like Kobe or others, is that there are thousands out there who will never make it, not even with the same level of skill, passion and determination.
Some of them might make it, but might face some career ending calamity. Either way, they are royally screwed. In these cases, it makes sense to hedge your bet. I mentioned this to my friend.

Me: Why not continue with the band, and work on getting a degree that will payoff irrespective of the success or failure of the band? This way, you’re fine either way.

Her: Well, this is a really good school…,

Me: I’m sure it is, but what if you were to have to end your career with the band? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a backup plan?

Her: I never thought of that before.

Think about it: I’m not saying you won’t be the next Kobe, or whoever, but I’m not saying you will be. Either way, there’s an old saying about putting eggs in one basket. Makes sense to me.