Thanksgiving Weekend

This guest post from Werner Rogers

The Thanksgiving weekend is one of the biggest of our whole year and this year was no different. They started this thing called Small Business Saturday and that really drove a lot of people out to the store which I was really appreciative of that. Thank goodness a few weeks ago I went to www.bank-card-processing.com and had cleaned up the back room to make way for all the extra shipments we got in but you know, I guess that’s all part of the crazy days around the holidays. Business is still booming right before Christmas and I’m thankful for that and all the time I’ve had to prepare. My store is doing well despite the economy and I think that’s something to be proud of so you know, I’m going to keep on keeping on, as my dad would say. I think at this point I know what makes a successful entrepreneur and that’s all that really matters for me. Life is good as it stands and it’s only looking to get better at this point!

So many scams out there

I have been astonished to find out how many scams are “out there” nowadays. So many advertisements for “working at home and making a million dollars” are tempting the people who are having a difficult life to send in their hard earned dollars to sign up for a “pie in the sky” scheme. I feel so badly for the thousands of desperate people who are scammed by these piranhas of society! Even I have been the target of some scams where someone sent me a fraudulent money order and wanted me to cash it at my bank and send them money by Western Union. What is coming of this world?

Trip down the toy aisle

My wife always says that the only difference between the men and the boys is the price of their toys. I admit it, I am just a big kid at heart. I have a collection of Classic kids toys like Lincoln Logs a growing collection of remote control toys like the helicopters and automated dogs. I keep telling my wife that they are an investment, but I don’t think she’s fooled even for a minute. She tells me that if they were an investment then they would have never been removed from their boxes! Yeah, but they are an investment in my happiness!

Whenever we go shopping together, she complains that I always wander away so she can’t find me. And then her twenty minute trip to the store turns into an hour or more! I keep telling her that all she has to do is come to the toy aisle, and she will find me checking out the latest in electronic toys! She just needs to build more time into her shopping time budget if I’m going along! And never mind how much money I’m spending on toys; after all, we ARE saving money by car-pooling in to the store!

So very convenient

Every now and then I run into somebody who still spends hours on end writing checks out to pay their bills. Ever since my own bank offered Electronic Payments service (they call it Bill-pay) I signed up and have been delighted ever since! I don’t have to spend any time writing out the checks, so it saves me time. I don’t have to buy the blank checks, and I don’t have to buy stamps, so I save money. The Bill-pay is absolutely free, so it saves me time and money; how can you go wrong?

When I run into those people who say that they still do their bill paying by hand, I ask them why they don’t use their bank’s Bill-pay service. Sometimes they say that they don’t have a computer, or Internet service. Those folks tend to be senior citizens, so I can understand that. But the people that are my age or younger, when they say that they don’t own a computer, I really have to wonder why. I don’t get the impression that they are hard up for money. I wonder if they are afraid of computers!

Bad girl!

I have to give my niece a little bit of credit for creativity, although I’m not too happy about it.  What is it I’m not happy about?  Well, apparently she has been giving out my cell phone number as a “can be reached” number on a number of her credit accounts. And you can guess what happened next, right? Right, she has fallen behind on paying her bills, and now I’m getting a lot of debt collection calls for her on my cell phone!

Well, that is, admittedly, one way to Stop Debt Collectors from harassing you – giving out the wrong “can be reached” number! When the telephone call is being made by a real live human being, I don’t mind it too much because I explain that they have reached a wrong number and then they update their records, don’t bother me again. What I DO mind, however, are the collection calls that are dialed by a machine and when I answer the phone I get a recorded message that the call is for so-and-so and if I’m not that person, to hang up.