Struggling with debt

I’ve been hearing a lot of advice recently from financial experts on how to best manage our money in these economic hard times.  In the past, the advice has been to pay off credit cards as quickly as possible.  This has been good advice because credit card debt has always been considered “bad debt” because interest rates have been high.  However, in recent months the credit card companies have been cancelling accounts left and right.  They are afraid that they are going to be stuck with a lot of unpaid credit card debt.  Quite possibly because there has been a lot of publicity recently about how people can get out of paying most of their credit card debt!  The companies are using the excuse that the cards have not been used recently, so they are cancelling them due to non-use.  I think they are just afraid of losing money! 

So more recently people have been advised to stop paying off their credit cards, and to keep low balances on them so that the credit card companies won’t close the accounts.  And I think that people who have poor credit and are struggling to get credit cards approved would be well advised to get some prepaid credit cards so that they can start rebuilding their credit rating.

Paperless? I don’t think so!

I can remember when the personal computers were first “introduced” to the business world. They were touted as being good because they were going to save time and paper. The first version in our office was a word processer that had to spit out a blank page of paper before it typed the document, and then a blank page after the document. I kept asking my boss “would you please explain to me how this is saving paper – we are using three papers to get one typed paper!” My boss just shook his head; he didn’t know the answer to that either! This was before any kind of “official recycling” was done, but we took the waste paper to local day care centers

Beach vacations

My wife LOVES to vacation at the beach more than anywhere else.  Although she is always careful to put on lots of sunscreen and relax in the shade, she loves the warm breeze, the sand, and the sounds of the ocean.  She tells me that her favorite memories of her childhood are of vacationing at the beach with her family.

For our next wedding anniversary I’m thinking about surprising her with a beach vacation at a Myrtle Beach Resort.  There are so many different fun activities that we can do at a Resort in Myrtle Beach; there are water parks, amusement parks, dinner shows, and just plain old relaxing.  I know that she would prefer an Oceanfront Hotel Myrtle Beach to stay; that way she could just walk out of the hotel and onto the beach, so I am busy comparing the prices, locations, and ameneities of the different hotels in the area.

No hands can opener

I received, as a Christmas gift, a No-Hands Can opener that is battery operated. The can opener would open the can, but would not let go of the can’s lid! So I mentioned that problem to the person who gave it to me, and they swapped it out for a new one for me.

This new one will only go around the can’s lid for about an inch, and then stops. It won’t let go of the can lid, so it is stuck on the can. This makes using the thing a challenge! I have put fresh batteries in it twice, hoping that would “fix it” but it didn’t make a difference.

I noticed that there was a sticker on the opener that said the name of the company that made it. I sent an email to the Sharper Image, telling them about this problem, told them that it is apparent that it is defective and to please replace the product.

They replied that they need the receipt in order to do that. I contacted the person who gave it to me, and she said that she threw the receipt away. I have told that to the company; I offered to send them the defective unit and they have ignored my reply.

I’m not used to that kind of poor customer service. I am used to the policies of companies like LL Bean that stand behind their product, receipt or no receipt, the only question being “Is the customer satisfied?”

I will try my best to avoid doing business with that company in the future, as I feel that customer service/satisfaction is very important. There is a sticker on the unit, proving it came from them, I don’t think that they should require any more proof than that.

Getting help

I think one of the reasons that I get so concerned about people self-medicating is that it can quickly turn into a drug addiction.  I’ve heard of so many cases where a well-meaning family member gives a different family member their prescription pain killers to alleviate a temporary painful situation, but that the recipient then likes the euphoric effect so much that they start stealing the pain killers from the real patient.  And before you know it, that results in having two people in trouble – the one who needed the pain pills in the first place has run out and can’t get more, and the one who has been stealing them has now become addicted and can’t get more legally.

I have to say that I don’t know any family at all that has never had to send one of their family members to one or more drug treatment program to try to cure some kind of drug addiction.  I’m really glad that there are drug treatment centers available to help these families, but I think it is a shame that we need them in the first place.