I work in a professional field where I am relied upon for advice.  Unfortunately, sometimes my clients or prospective clients don’t like what I have to say.   They want to force me to take actions to achieve their goals—they want to ignore all the red flags and warnings.  Assuming a legal line hasn’t been crossed, should I help them achieve what they want?  That’s a difficult question I have to ask myself nearly every week.  Here are some of the excuses people use to question your advice as a professional:

“I had a Friend in the Exact Same Situation and Their (Professional) Did X and Achieved Y.”

When I hear this line of reasoning, I have to remind the individual that every matter is different.  The factual realities of two matters will never (or rarely) be exactly the same.  Laws change, people change, the world changes—–every day.  Providing some resources to the client or prospective client showing why you’re standing behind your advice can also be helpful in this situation.

“We Need to Achieve Y.”

The best professionals find a way to achieve their client’s goals.  A focus on creativity can sometimes move walls.  But every so often, there is a situation where even if the client’s goal can be achieved, it might be a pyrrhic victory.  Sometimes the best thing to do in this situation is to write a formal cover your ass (CYA) letter to your client.  You can say:

“You have asked me to do X, Y & Z.  I have advised you that the following results might occur should I assist you in your request.  Moreover, I have advised against pursuing X, Y & Z.  You have indicated, however, that despite my advice, you still wish to pursue X, Y & Z.”

“I don’t care about the (money, etc), this is about the principle.”

Over and over again in my business, I see people who are fighting (for the principle) get burned…..badly.   They will ignore rational and logical ways to move forward and insist on either (proving they are absolutely right), or, more often, (trying to inflict pain or revenge on somebody else.).  Again, a CYA and perhaps even withdrawing as the services provider might be necessary when dealing with such clients.    It’s nice to have principles, but to an extreme, anything can become dangerous.

“I hired you because you’re cheap and I guess you get what you pay for.”

If you sell yourself short in pricing a professional service, then people will think you suck.  This is a tough thing to learn, but people who only shop based on price are nearly impossible to work with—-90% of the time.  (in my experience).  The best thing to do is to price yourself fairly and market yourself on your skills, customer service, etc., rather than your price.  Don’t be the Walmart of CPA’s or lawyers or dentists—-or you’ll be treated accordingly.

“I Come to You Because the Last Professional Screwed Up”

The truth is they probably stiffed the last professional and now they are going to stiff you.   Another possibility is that they are simply tough to work with and will soon be griping about how much you “screwed up.”  If  you take on enough clients like this, make sure you upgrade your malpractice coverage.

The “I know more than you,” Client

You’re not going to change this person.  Either accept that you’ll be tortured or get out while you can.

The “I don’t have the money right now, but”

There’s no time like the present.  Somebody wouldn’t walk into Subway and request a sandwich that will be paid for later.  Your professional services must be paid in advance (or at least a retainer, payment plan, etc) because if they don’t have the money now they probably never will.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the difficult client types.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to get out or never take them on.  Remember to always CYA.

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“I never want to do the same things twice. I like surprises.” — Audrey Tautou

For some reason it feels like surprise parties are on the rise this year. I threw one surprise party and attended another one.

The first surprise party was for my parent’s and their 25th wedding anniversary. I contacted relatives far in advance, ordered food, and set the date up with everyone. Then there was a little snafu. My parents are old and never have plans. Turns out that they decided to buy tickets to concert on the day of the surprise party. I debated cancelling it. Instead I found out that one of their friends wanted tickets. Sweet! Around 5pm family and friends came inside and started singing. My parents were completely caught off guard. They ended up having a blast.

The next surprise party was for my buddies 25th birthday. This one was tough to keep a secret because he kept on asking me what was going on. His girlfriend ended up bringing him to a restaurant where 25 of us were sitting and waiting for him to enter. It ended up being a night to remember (if anyone can remember anything).

What are the benefits of throwing a surprise party?

• You make someone’s day.
• Friends come together to work on a common goal.
• You get to bring everyone together.
• You show appreciation.

Those are the main benefits of throwing a surprise party, in case you even needed any.

What are some good occasions to throw a surprise party for?

1. Birthday.
2. Graduation.
3. Job promotion.
4. New job.

If none of these occasions are coming up then you can throw a surprise party for the sake of having one. Why not? Life is short.

How do you actually throw a surprise party?

Contact everyone you want involved.

The first step is to try to figure out who’s in, who can make it, and what day would work best. This is why you contact everyone that might be involved to see where they stand. For me this took forever because not all of my relatives are on Facebook.

Figure out the details based on the person’s interests.

The surprise is all about that person or couple. This is why you should base it around their interests. For my buddies surprise party, his girlfriend got him a custom made jersey. For my parents, I had catering come in from a restaurant that they eat at often. The details were based on their interests.

Reach everyone privately.

This step involves reaching everyone without the person finding out. This can be a bit tricky depending on how close you are. This is why you can create a private Facebook group to keep track of everything going out.

Figure out the logistics.

The actual surprise is the toughest part to plan. How do you surprise them? How do you essentially trick them? This all depends on the venue. For my parents I knew that I had to have everyone come inside when they were upstairs getting changed. For my friend’s party, we all got to the restaurant before him. You need to figure out the logistics for the surprise to work.

Have fun.

Once the party begins it’s time to have fun and enjoy the surprise!

That’s how you can have one hell of a surprise party. Are you ready to make someone’s day?

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I sat in class, learning. All the while, shaded—but not entirely unseen, my debt was increasing—-minute by minute, Always growing along with a 6.8% interest rate.

While I slept at night, that debt speedometer kept rolling onwards, like a boulder picking up snow down a mountain.

I wasn’t entirely ignorant of the situation. I knew what I was getting into, to some extent. But numbers on a screen or even a paper statement don’t fully show how far in you are.

Then one day I graduated from graduate school. I was handed a diploma and a short grace period before I had to start repaying my six figure plus student loan debt. My Wife left graduate school with $50,000 student loan debt of her own. That’s when we first realized just how much trouble we were in: we would have to pay $1,700.00 a month in student loan debt for the next decade, maybe two. We were, in a word: student loan poor.

We grow up being taught not to gamble, but every time you’re taking out student loan debts you are gambling, even if it’s gambling on yourself.

Being Student Loan Poor

When we entered graduate school, it was 2006. The economy wasn’t perfect, but we had certain income expectations that the 2008 Recession somewhat tempered. My wife and I have been lucky to always have gainful employment and we’ve managed to pay down a decent chunk of our debt. But we still owe close to $160,000.00, and it does seem like we’re paying mostly interest. When we get extra money we try to pay more than the minimum due, but the debt is daunting to say the least.

We now also have a mortgage, though not any children as yet. It’s hard to start a family when your finances are so unsettled. You don’t want to wait too long and miss out, but you also don’t want to move too quickly when you’re not sure if you could afford the extra expenses associated with caring for another. There are some weeks where it’s hard to support just ourselves and our dog.

I’ve done my fair share of freelance writing to help pay down debt, and my wife grabs every extra opportunity that comes her way as well. I’m lucky she’s so resourceful and that is particularly true now that I have started my own business. When you’re self-employed there are times of feast and famine, and when you’re first starting out it’s more of the latter.

Conclusion

I’ve always felt a deep stirring restlessness. I’m not sure if that will ever pass and sometimes I think it grows each year. I expect a lot out of myself and sometimes feel that I’m just meandering along when I could be doing something more. Lately I’ve been feeling a sort of inner resurgence—a deep need for knowledge and to get my life more in order. Maybe it’s the hope to start a family soon, and knowing that things have to be placed in their right places before that can become a reality. Maybe it’s just a natural reaction–a form of maturity that comes with aging.

But I know that so long as I have such a large amount of student loans around my neck, that I will never feel fully free.  I hope that by sharing this experience, I’ve helped some of you deciding whether to take on more student loan debt.  Because you can’t change the past—and a lot of student loans can sometimes make for a difficult present and cloudy future.

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Today’s experiment in finance is going to look at a different angle at one of our greatest expenses. This expense is transportation. Most of us spend a huge chunk of our income on transportation. This includes getting to work, visiting friends, running errands, and living everyday life. The problem is that we sometimes spend far too much money on cars. Some of us are in the negatives because of the high costs of running our cars.

Here’s a quick story on spending money on a car…

A buddy of mine decided that the best way to pick up girls would be to buy a BMW. He took the little savings that he had and he spent it on a BMW. He got the car up and running and it was nice to drive around in a BMW. He then suddenly realized it wasn’t so glamorous because the cost of gas had gone up. The cost of maintenance and parts for a BMW was also much higher than he anticipated. He only used this car to go to work and the gym, both which were very close to him. In the long run, he spent all of his income on this car and found it impossible to get ahead financially.

How do you save money by taking public transit?

In my  city it costs you $3.00 one way to get around. You can also buy a monthly unlimited pass and travel as much as you want with it. Think about how much money you’ll save on maintenance, parking, gas, insurance, and car payments.

Have I ever saved money by taking the bus?

I spent my college years living on the bus. My school was one hour each way for me and believe me that was a long hour at times. The good news is that we’re in the era of smart phones. I would get so much done on the way to school. I also got most of my studying done on the bus. I don’t know what I would’ve done without my last minute studying.

Is it worth saving money by getting around with public transportation?

Just like with any other financial experiment there are the obvious caveats here. For one, the bus will take you much longer to get around. The other issue is convenience. You can’t put a price on the convenience of driving depending on where you live. Where my girlfriend lives it’s impossible to get around without a car. Riding the bus isn’t always the best option. For me it was for those four years of college.

Will you take the bus? Will you try to save money by using the public transportation in your city?

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When I was in college and was new to the world of credit cards, I became obsessed with credit card rewards.  I would try and put everything on my credit card so I could get cash back.  It’s like free money, I thought.  I would even put my rent on my credit card, as at the time the apartment complex I rented from allowed online credit card payments and didn’t charge extra money for the service.  At 1% cash back, that meant I got $10.00 back each month.  Awesome, I thought, another $120.00 in my pocket each year. 

Credit Rating

The major problem was that I didn’t understand the implications of credit scores.  As a college student, my credit limit was only $2,000.00.  That meant that every time I would pay my rent on my card, it would be a payment equal to 50% of my credit limit.  At the time, I didn’t know that using up a large percentage of the available credit can hurt your credit score.  I figured that if you made every payment each month (and I always paid in full at the time), that my credit rating could only be helped.

Psychology of Spending

Another concept I didn’t know much about was the psychology of spending.  I didn’t realize that the average person (and I’m nothing if not average) spends more money when they use a credit card versus cash.  This makes sense as swiping a plastic card is not as tangible as parting with your well earned greenbacks.

But—-But You Get Cash Back or Other Rewards….

To this day, I’m not opposed to credit cards.  My mother, who abhors the use of credit cards except for emergencies would be appalled to know that I usually put my groceries on my credit card.  My card offers 5% back on groceries and to me it’s like getting a free bag of salad every time I go to the store.

Other people swear by building up airline miles from a rewards card.

But I do realize now that it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you let the allure of the rewards points interfere with the cold realities of credit card usage.

Conclusion

What are some of the other pros and cons with using credit cards for rewards points?  Who offers the best rewards out of the major credit card companies?

Was I a total idiot in college for not realizing that using up 25%, 50% and sometimes even 90% of my credit cards might negatively impact my credit rating?

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