One Particular Harbour
Thoughts about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from Dave Darby.
All posts in Finances & Economics
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Don't Be a Sucker
May 14, 2010Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »PT Barnum said “There’s a customer born every minute.” Yup. Now as with many quotes attributed to famous people, this one is more likely to be recounted as “There’s a sucker born every minute.” While it is disputed that PT Barnum was that disingenuous with his customer base, this quote is also true.
Here’s the problem with the cocky, American economy as I explained some time ago in Economic Cannibalism – we are so proud of our role as the world’s leading economy of consumption that we don’t even realize that we are eating ourselves to death.
And we are suckers for urgency and chaos. So what do snake oil pitchmen do? Never mind importance, they only need focus the gullible masses on urgency. How about a few examples:
- “Sunday, SUNday, SUNDAY!” – great for selling monster rally tix
- “Yours now for only 3 LOW monthly payments!” – most as seen on tv ads
- “But that’s not all folks, order within the next 10 minutes and we’ll DOUBLE your offer!” – most as seen on tv ads
- “Billy Mays here…” – enough said
- “Don’t wait, ask your doctor about Cialis” – gotta love pharmaceuticals skipping the middleman here – MDs study for 7+ years, consumers on average, 7 minutes, nice
And do we really “need” another set of knives? Yeah, the can-cutting thing is cool and I’m sure the tomato drop/perfect split took some skill/practice, but really – have you seen most people’s over-crowded knife drawers?
The point is – if you have overstuffed drawers, can’t get your car(s) in your garage, have a loaded attic (or storage unit) and generally find yourself struggling with clutter – well, you have been duped, sucked right in. You see, we should be following our passions which should be only a few things, I mean, who has time for more??
But, when we are sucked in, we consume/buy until we have trouble storing everything that somebody else told us we ‘needed’. And these people convince us to place a high urgency on something that is of little importance to our life or survival. So, don’t be a sucker. Put a stop to the madness.
a) don’t follow priorities that are urgent but not important and
b) don’t ignore priorities that are important to the point that they become urgent.If you do, you’re just chasing your tail and your focus will always be survival. If you break free and pursue ‘real’ priorities – well, welcome to significance and your Ideal Life and you will be surprised at how much time you will have for leisure – who hates that?
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10 Weeks to Save
Oct 19, 2009Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »Reminder that GM is closing dealerships and this year’s economic stimulus package allows you to save big bucks on a new car purchase through Dec 31. The stimulus incentive will deduct your sales tax (if you have sales tax in your state). For us, that’s $2600 on our new suburban we purchased in September which is probably $800+ real tax credit in 2010 for us.
Which reminds me, only 10 weeks left to save on Disney annual resident passes which are being extended to 15 month passes. Our car tax savings will pay for half the cost of Disney for our family for over a year.
A win-win as we inject that money directly back into the economy (the intention of the stimulus) and our family gets much needed time together at discounted prices at a place we really enjoy.
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Email alerts – I love you man
Oct 15, 2009Posted by Dave Darby
Read more »I love email alerts I just don’t usually talk about them. But this week I’ve been improving my systems to be more efficient – more efficient for clients, family and dammnit, for me. So today when I see a few email alerts that save me time and aggravation, I have to grab the bullhorn and talk about a few things that are helping me grab life’s bull by the horns.
First up, vehicle diagnostics email from GM. Both right side tires are 2lbs low – gotcha. Next gas trip, I’m on it.
Next up, quick link to BaseCamp reports for time sheets – tomorrow is payday and these new reports allowed Julie and I to quickly review everyone’s time and get everybody paid in less time/effort.
Finally, Kohl’s statement alert – this is a big one folks because we just opened our first ‘charge’ account in, I don’t know, 10 years?? You know how every store clerk asks the obligatory, ‘would you like to save 10% today?’? Well, I usually respond with ‘what, so you can try to hook me for 30% tomorrow? (I smile when I say it, I think it’s cute but maybe it’s not.) Well, I was ‘in the mood’ at Kohl’s last month. See, I don’t shop and we’re pretty low key when it comes to shopping and I don’t give a squat about social norms. We buy what we need when we need it (like NFL Sunday Ticket) and we pay cash. BUT – Kohl’s offers really exceptional, ongoing deals to credit clients sooooooo, we did it.
So why did I really appreciate that email alert today? Because it was our first one and it quickly dawned on me, whoa, it’s been about 5 weeks since we opened that and, whoa, their automated system used our old driver’s license address (we moved 6 weeks ago) and we had to call to have them cancel/resend new cards and, WHOA, I’ll bet those bastards hit me for 30%!!!
Yep, payment turns out was due last week and we weren’t in the system for last month’s notice. Well to Kohls’ “credit”, they quickly reversed those charges and I promptly paid the account online ‘in full’ – no finance or late charges. Whew – that was a close one.
So, email alerts, because you this week we will get our team paid with a record minimal effort, improve the safety, fuel efficiency and wear/tear on the suburban and we won’t get jacked up by ridiculous finance/late charges. I love you man.