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Sometimes I wonder at how someone with a lot of education, experience, and intelligence can be so stupid. It pains me to contemplate that grown men and women think so little of people as credit card executives and advertising people do.
BANK OF AMERICA
In 2008, they instituted a new tagline that is kind of offensive. “Bank of Opportunity”. They claim that this stands for all of the opportunities for the customers who bank there and for all of the different customers that can be helped there beyond the large, corporate customers they are more known for.
I’ve made my views on BofA clear in other posts, so I’ll keep this short. I have long believed that the “Bank of Opportun-ists” has stood for each customer of the bank and how the bank can screw them out of money in fees, higher loan rates, lower savings rates, and poor service. I guess it’s all in how you look at it.
CHASE
Where I live, Chase doesn’t have a large banking presence, but their credit cards are everywhere. Their slogan is “Chase what matters”. I’m guessing this means to strive for the things in life that are important to you.
Generally, I have no problem with Chase. I have and use one of their credit cards, and no complaints. The interest I pay is fair and affordable, and they are good with increasing my limit whenever an increase is warranted.
Where I do have a problem, is with their new advertising gimmicks. Their newest commercial shows this young couple at home when the TV goes out. The wife “allows” the husband to go get a new TV. The next part of the commercial shows him at some retailer, looking at large screen, flat screen, projection, HD, whatever TVs. He’s sitting in a recliner looking at a TV the size of a wall. There’s a voice-over that describes their new “innovation”. You can text Chase to get your available credit line. The guy does this to find out how much he can “afford” to spend. The next shot is back in the home of the couple, with them watching a substantially smaller TV than any of the ones he was looking at.
First, I have to know:
Exactly HOW difficult it is to call to find out your debt threshold for a card?!
I use debt threshold in favor of the misleading “available balance” for clarity: When you use your credit card, you are increasing your debt, not pulling money out of some mythical “available balance” pool. Once people understand that, you can start to make smart decisions about using credit or not. Anyways, calling to get a balance used to take me about 30 seconds. Since I’m not as adept as some, texting will probably take me four months.
The part of this that offends me most is that this is directly targeted at you. Chase is actively targeting people who:
- Are familiar with and use SMS (texting).
- Are likely to want to spend more money than they have available
- Would make an impulse purchase of a large-ticket item
Traditionally, these things point to young people. Credit cards have a long and sordid history with preying on young people, and this is just the next step in a long progression.
Here’s the point: These companies use the advertising they do because it is successful. If BofA changed it’s tagline to, “Because eventually you’ll need us for something”, it would be refreshingly honest, but it would not make money for them. They would drop that slogan in seconds, and the person who came up with it would be gone before the first brochure was printed. Similarly, if Chase went to “Chase the people with better stuff than yours”, nobody would want their product. As consumers, you need to look past any company’s advertising, and do some research to find out whether or not you need their services, or if you can do better with some other company. As young people, you can prove the advertising people wrong by not making the impulse purchase. You can shop for financial services that meet your needs today, and that will be able to change to accommodate your needs tomorrow.
Today, we’re talking about how to move, and more importantly, how not to move out. Once you’ve decided that your why makes sense, and you have started your planning, you have to decide how; unfortunately, there are a couple of ways to go about this, some are good and healthy while others are bad and will ultimately harm you. The problem is, sometimes circumstances make something that is normally good turn into something bad, and vice versa.
When I moved out for the last time from my parents, I did so for good reasons, and in a manner that was healthy. I was getting married, so I had to go. I kept my parents involved by communicating where I was in the process, and made sure they understood that I was always going to be close at hand if they ever needed help. I understand that is not always a possibility, but for my parents’ peace of mind, it was worth it. I think that communication was the key to my successful transition for my parents.
On the other hand, as I’ve mentioned before, I have several brothers who are older than I am. They have left home in various ways, and few of them were positive. The way they left has left scars on their relationships with their parents that take a long time to heal. Some have brought friends over to help clean out their stuff on their 18th birthday, others have made living conditions for the whole family so onerous that they were told to find someplace else, and a couple joined the military.
One of the things you should think about when planning to leave the nest is the relationship you have with those left behind. Maybe you have younger siblings that really look up to you and would be hurt and feel betrayed if you left. Maybe you have older siblings who will feel an overwhelming sense of duty to stay and take care of the family (which they believe is really your responsibility now that they are planning to leave), who would be resentful, angry, and even jealous if you left before they did.
Of course, maybe you are becoming too complacent and need to move on before you spoil yourself. Are you contributing nothing to the family, but still reaping the benefits of your parents’ labor? Are your parents forced to keep working longer than they planned to because they are still supporting you?
It is important that whatever the reason for your decision to move, you communicate honestly with your family. Don’t go in with a chip on your shoulder, stay calm and rational, and above all, come in with your mind open. Your family might give you some insight that you never thought of that might change your mind or might help you to live better than you would have without the insight.
Just to end any debate about what I am and what I am not saying, if you are in an abusive situation, get the hell out without delay. Anything is better than being abused. Case closed.
So let’s say that you are of age and maturity to feel that it’s time go leave the nest in search of greener pastures. What do you do? I had another post about this HERE, talking to someone who was 15. But what if you are of age and are thinking about moving out?
Moving at any age is stressful. There is always something that you will forget to do or will do that you shouldn’t do. Some of these errors are minor complications that annoy more than anything else. Others are pretty costly mistakes that, if avoided, will make the process of moving at least bearable.
Moving away from home for the first time is huge.
Over the next few posts, we’ll talk about the process of moving out of home. We’ll try to attack the process on every front so that once that time is right; you will be able to complete this stage of development without winding up in the nuthouse or the poorhouse.
Why?
Every teenager thinks at one time or another that they just can’t do “it” anymore. They think that their parents are too strict, or too lenient; they want the FREEDOM to be able to sleep all day and not have to worry about things like chores or rules.
Some teenagers feel that they want to be able to “spread their wings”. They want to PROVE that they are mature enough to survive on their own. They want to be adults.
Some teens have more CONCRETE MOTIVATION if they are planning to go to school away from home, or if the family is moving and the teen wants to stay to finish out school.
I’m not going to make any judgment calls about what is a good reason or a bad reason, but all of these reasons are valid in their own respect. There may even be other reasons out there for teens to contemplate moving out. The important thing is that teens out there are moving out in large numbers, and it’s important to understand why.
Before you make that call, consider your options carefully. Examine the why of your decision. Think about whether or not you are making this decision with a clear head, or if you are working off of emotions. Is moving out the only option? Is it even the best option? As with everything else, it’s a really good idea to get your ideas in writing. Write all of your thoughts down on paper; no matter how dumb or insignificant you might think it is: getting those ideas on paper will help you step outside yourself and see your reasoning objectively.
Have a story about when you were moving out for the first time? Horror stories, good stories, funny mishaps, whatever. Or tell us why you made the decision to move away from home for the first time.
Happy New Year to all!
I purposely am not posting the standard, “New Year, New Resolutions” drivel that many PF’ers like to put out this time of year. I’m not sure about the actual number, but I’ve heard 8% as the number of successful New Year’s resolutions. I’ll freely admit that math was never my best subject, but that number sounds a lot like 92% of all resolutions fail.
Why do they fail? Who knows? Maybe because a lot of resolutions are unrealistic, maybe because they are done in connection to a huge party, or maybe because people just don’t have the strength of will to stick to something. What I do know is that setting a resolution to do something for the new year almost never works.
“But Wil, its tradition. It’s something to aspire to. Why do you want to spoil our fun?” I’m all for tradition, but I don’t think I’m ready to make the leap and say that writing down a list of future failures is a good tradition. Don’t get me wrong, I never said anything about being against setting goals, and I’m the last one to try and spoil someone else’s fun. I think fun is a worthy pursuit for everybody. My concern is that most resolutions come in few flavors: Financial, Health, Self-Improvement, or Heart. Each of these things is too important to play games with, and each is too important to risk guaranteeing failure.
Besides, since calendars are pretty much arbitrary, why do we have to wait for a specific day to decide to improve our lives? Why can’t we say that we want a better deal today? The answer: We don’t, and we can (should).
Goals, in order to be successful, need to be specific, realistic, written, and urgent. Without one of these ingredients, you increase your risk of failure. So when you are thinking of a goal, make it all of these three things, and you will find that you have done more than write a goal, you have written a game-plan to follow in order to make it so.
Think of school: Before you write an essay, teachers will tell you to start by brainstorming. Then, they will have you order your brainstorm in the form of an outline. Once you have an outline, all you have to do is write it in complete sentences. When you do this, you pass more often than not. This is very similar to how to develop attainable goals. Instead of saying, “I want to be rich”, how about “I want to be able to put away $1,500 in a savings account for Christmas presents by December 1st”? This goal is specific, realistic (you are basically saying you want to save about $60.00 every two weeks), and urgent (by December 1st, for Christmas).
So, develop goals, and make sure you have a plan when you do. This way, when you make these goals, you will gain confidence in the accomplishment and will be able to go for more aggressive goals as time goes on.
