The Financial Woes of Our Youth. (Part 2)

You don’t know what to do – you think it will just go away if you move, or get your sister/brother or parents to say you don’t live here anymore. This DOES NOT work. You will be tracked down, be it in 1 year or 10 years. All these black marks will sit there and collect dust until the day you need your credit rating for something like a home loan or even a new car. You will be denied ALL of that UNLESS you act now.

First – you MUST seek help. Contact the people you owe money to and try and negotiate a repayment plan, see if they will reduce/stop the interest. You MUST maintain that payment plan, the first time you default, it will be worse and they will not enter into another agreement, ever with you.

SecondIf possible, try and consolidate your debts into one payment, the larger the debt, the less fees are charged and sometimes the interest rate is lower. But this will only work if you haven’t already ruined your credit rating.

ThirdAlways pay off the highest interest debt first, but you MUST maintain payment on smaller, lower interest debts also, or your will have considered as having defaulted.

It won’t be easy – but you must knuckle down. You will have to go without – you would be advised to go back on a pre-paid phone. Stay away from shopping centres, use public transport whenever and wherever you can. Stop buying takeaway, learn to cook. It will be 4-5 years until you have filled the hole in – but it will be a lesson learned and perhaps a lesson that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Life is not free, life is not easy. Do not make the mistake many young people are making today and think that interest free is the way to go if you want something. If the old one is still working, keep it, save up and pay cash. Credit is an evil and dangerous thing, that will consume your life if you are not careful.

Help is only a phone call away. It will not be pleasant, it will not be easy. But you have to do it.

The Financial Woes of Our Youth. (Part 1)

I’ll admit it – I’ve been in the workforce 23 years, that makes me older than the youth I am about to discuss. But I’ve mentored several people from the youth group regarding finances and have tried to dig them out of the self-dug holes, they find themselves in.

It is so easy to get into trouble, you may not even realize it until it is too late.

You want the newest mobile phone, bugger going prepaid and finding the money for the handset, stuff it just go on contract. You don’t read the contract properly and you end up with a bill of $2000.00. This occurs because you are used to the service cutting off when you used pre-paid. This is the first error. Some kids are smart and will ask for help, others think it will just go away and this is the first step into the troubled lands.

You want a new laptop – easy – Harvey Norman are offering interest-free for 24 months, no problems, I’ll pay it off before then. You always have something else to pay and you don’t pay off the bill, even though you get sent monthly reminders. 2 years race by and suddenly that $2,000.00 laptop is going to cost $3,500.00 assuming you pay it off immediately, when you realize that they interest free period has expired. (27% interest, back dated AND compound)
This is assuming you have job and haven’t lost it yet, due to economic downturn.

The car that you drive, your parents helped you with the personal loan and probably went guarantor. Lucky you, but you haven’t paid the monthly loan amounts, you would much rather spend the money on partying, then paying stupid bills which will always be there. Suddenly your parents are receiving nasty letters, saying you have defaulted on your loan. You now owe another $500-$1000.00 in legal costs and you have your first black mark against your name.

Let’s add this up - $2000.00 phone bill, $3000.00 Harvey Norman, $500.00 court costs, $1200.00 loan costs. This totals approx $7000.00 in debt before you are even 21.

Look out for part 2 tomorrow. It will give you tools you need to fill in the hole you have dug.

The animals went in two by two

The animals went in two by two, hurrah! hurrah!

The animals went in two by two, hurrah! hurrah!

The animals went in two by two, the elephant and the kangaroo.

And they all went into the ark, for to get out of the rain.

Today being the first day of school holidays, 7th Dec 2009 (lucky me) My second born finished school 2 weeks earlier than other schools.

Anyway – almost Ms18 – decided to treat him (at my expense) and take him to the zoo and said that if he misbehaved she would handcuff him to a monkey and if that didn’t work – would throw him to the lions!

By 11am – there were still no tears and no misbehaving. Mstr12 is saying the whole day is great, and Ms18 said it was easy getting to the zoo on public transport.

Just received a phone call from Mstr12 – can I delete some of the photos off my memory card? – Ummmm, what photos? The ones I took last holidays. How much room do you have on the memory card? – Oh 343 more pictures! – FFS – talk about putting the cart before the horse.

All’s quiet at 2.30pm – fingers crossed Ms18 hasn’t fed Mstr12 to the lions!

The train ride home saw a grown man offer Mstr12 some lollies, Ms18 went off her rocker. I’m sorry but in this world of rock spiders and similar, a grown man can’t go doing that on public transport, it’s just so wrong. I know – I am becoming untrusting, but seriously………….Mstr12 looks younger than his years and is quite petite for a boy. Makes you wonder.

Besides that – the day was a great successful and two children (yes Ms18 is still my child) had a wonderful time.

The weather is somewhat changed today – wet and raining – but surprisingly not cold! – Thanks for the good show Melbourne.

A Story about getting on in life

In 1998 I was involved in a rather serious car accident, one that the only thing which stopped the car from exploding was the spare tyre that was punctured rather than the gas tank exploding.

I had been on the way to work – a reasonably new job of 3 months, I took 1 day off work to sort all the insurance out and report the accident to the police and go see the doctor.

For 8 years, I fought to keep a job, (where I was working forced me out - I should have sued, but it was all too much), I fought to keep my family together, my sanity and my house. We weren’t entitled to any government assistance due to issues with a failing business, TAC refused to pay any income support because my husband should have been able to help me home, not someone from the TAC. I told them time and time again, that he couldn’t leave apprentices in the factory – due to workcover regulations that could see him locked up in jail if the apprentices did something stupid – he would automatically get the blame.

So we struggled, we struggled to keep food on the table, we struggled to stay sane. We lived in a pigsty, because my back was too sore and I was too tired to do any housework, when I got home from paid work. I couldn’t lift my children. I had to work to pay the child care fees, because TAC wouldn’t pay the fees, and I couldn’t stay home AND afford to send the children to childcare. I barely had enough money to put food on the table. Work was the lesser of two evils.

I remember once asking the CES for $5-$10 so I could buy some potatoes (It’s amazing what you can do with potatoes) and they turned me away – I’ve never begged in my life – I didn’t know where to turn. We went hungry that night.

Things eased slightly when my youngest went to school. Still no permanent work – but at least no child care fees and people looked after me – loaned me money for work yet to be done, found me work. ‘Real’ employers didn’t want someone who couldn’t use their right arm sometimes, or walked with a limp.

Until recently, I didn’t have a permanent job – and I believe that was because of my disabilities.

Some 6 years later, just when I was starting to get my life back on track, another near fatal accident, which broke and crushed my leg. To this day the fibula is still broken.

Finally things started looking up – the bills get paid on time – the mortgage is paid up and beyond, finally we no longer need to scrimp and save just to have clothes and shoes to wear.

With perseverance I’ve come to realise that life is for living – I’ve had too many close calls not to realise this

You can move on – it takes time – it takes patience and most of all strength of character to succeed where others often fail.

Life is precious, family even more so and if you take one thing away from reading this – it is “Life continues with or without you, so make sure you are included, not excluded.”

Yoghurt Plus – Dog Food – Review #3

Above is a picture of the tester of Yoghurt Plus, and you know what? - I think he likes it!

Last week I picked up the bag of his 'normal' food and put a handful ON TOP of the Yogurt Plus, to see what would happen.

He's spent the last 3 days ferreting out the Yoghurt Plus! - so that proves - that although he seemed to dislike the product initially - he now seems to prefer it!

Check it out:- http://www.yoghurtplus.com.au/ and also here http://www.yoghurtplus.com.au/yoghurtplus/

The dog is the boss and he seems to prefer it - as the normal cost of the food I buy is mid-range - there would be nothing stopping me from purchasing this product when I need more (He's a small eater!)

Timely Customer Service Equals YOUR Money Ralph

I have a small site - that is hosted on small servers, with supposed AU based support. I know previously it was AU based - I had the owner's mobile number. Anyway - times change.

I had a query about the hosting and about what I could and could not do with 2 of the 5 sites I have with this company - So I sent an email:-

Reply-To: "Soon to be disgruntled customer"
From: "Soon to be disgruntled customer"
To:
Subject: my site.info
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:24:09 +1100

Hi

I operate my site.info - I think renewed in March - I'm also Contact for Clients site (At least I was) and they are (or were) on your servers.

Can I swap it out for another domain? - or do I have to open 2nd hosting plan?

Please advise - would like to point DNS this weekend if we can get everything sorted out for a book launch on Monday (I know late)

Please advise

Thanks

Soon to be disgruntled customer
(use email as out of range of mobile and it 12.30am here now!)

I sent another email 2 days later after not receiving a response, even though the site hosting admin claim they offer 24/7 support. here is the second email:-

Reply-To: "Soon to be disgruntled customer"
From: "Soon to be disgruntled customer"
To:
Subject: further to my email of the 27.02.10 at 00.24hrs
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 19:56:57 +1100

We can be reached 24/7 via E-mail to answer all of your support related needs. We can be reached at the following...

Hi

I was just wondering what 24/7 means? - I live on earth and 24/7 implies
that I am able to contact someone AT THE COMPANY THAT HOSTS MY SITE and several others that I am responsible for.

I was looking for more hosting - but it would seem that we are on two totally different planets.

Maybe my money is a different colour?

I haven’t done anything wrong - always paid my bills on time, what do I have to do to actually make contact with someone?

Thank-you
Soon to be disgruntled customer

PS here is the email of the 27.02.10 00.24hrs

Hi

I operate my site.info - I think renewed in march - I'm also contact for Clients site (At least I was) and they are (or were) on your servers.

Can I swap it out for another domain? - or do I have to open 2nd hosting plan?

Please advise - would like to point DNS this weekend if we can get everything sorted out for a book launch on Monday (I know late)

Please advise

Thanks

Soon to be disgruntled customer
(use email as out of range of mobile and it 12.30am here now!)

On the 3rd March 2010 - my credit card receives what I consider to be an unauthorised transaction. But then a series of unfortunate events occur - which delay my enquiring about the unauthorised charge. In fact these events keep me tied up for almost 2 weeks, during which time I do not give the matter a second thought.

Noting that I have not heard anything from this supposed 'company' for 18 days, I then out of the blue receive this email:-

Date: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 6:33 PM
Subject: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: edenxxxxxxxxxxxx.gmail.com


Thank you for your interest in our services. There is no contract and you are free to cancel at anytime.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thank you,
Cool Handle

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: VWB-596984
Department: Pre-Sales
Priority: Low
Status: Pending

To which I respond:-

From: Soon to be disgruntled customer
Date: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: sales@coolhandle.com


It would be really nice if you answered your emails in a timely fashion - considering you claim 24/7 site support

Doesn’t matter - as soon as I receive my credit card statement - you'll be in for a surprise - or maybe earlier

Thanks for NOT helping - I will be removing 2-3 sites (minimum from your servers) due to your poor response time and poor service

Thank-you

Soon to be disgruntled customer
Phone number deleted

What seems to be minutes later the following emails shot backwards and forwards over a period of 30 minutes in total

From: Cool Handle
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 5:24 AM
Subject: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: edenxxxxxxxxxxxx.gmail.com


Soon to be disgruntled customer,

What websites do you have with us? If you wish to cancel, please follow our procedure.

We are sorry that you want to cancel your account. In order to best serve you, please submit your request from the following form:

https://www.coolhandle.com/cancelation.php

Due to security reasons, we will not terminate account without the cancellation form being submitted with the proper information. We cannot except your cancelation request by any other method except for this cancelation form.

Please note that applicable any refunds will be based on our refund policy and our terms of service. For details regarding our terms of service, please review the following page:

http://www.coolhandle.com/company/legal/terms-of-service/

Thank you,
Cool Handle

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: VWB-596984
Department: Pre-Sales
Priority: Low
Status: Pending

and then I sent this one in response to the above:-

From: Soon to be disgruntled customer
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 6:58 AM
Subject: Re: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: sales@coolhandle.com


I can just repoint the DNS - I am not an idiot - although you seem to think I am

Without authority OR warning - you debit my credit card and consequently I'm rather pissed and you have failed to address ANY OF the issues I've raised

If you had bothered to read your emails - you would already have this information


Soon to be disgruntled customer
Phone number deleted

and then the reply from the hosting service was:-

From: Peter D.
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 7:02 AM
Subject: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: edenxxxxxxxxxxxx.gmail.com


Hello,

Thank you for contacting support.

We do apologise for the frustration you are experiencing, and regret losing you as a client. You can simply repoint the DNS if you wish, yes, and that would point all traffic to your domain name to whatever host you choose. However, unless you cancel your account with us, using the forms provided, your account will remain active with us, and you will continue to be billed accordingly.

Again, we regret losing your business, and apologise for the difficulties you have experienced.

Thank you
Thank you,
Peter D.
Cool Handle Hosting

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: VWB-596984
Department: Pre-Sales
Priority: Low
Status: Open

and then my reply - I am very frustrated at this time - they have failed to respond OR answer any question NOR have they answered anything in a timely manner or even attempt to address the issues at the heart of the problem

From: Soon to be disgruntled customer
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: sales@coolhandle.com


um - no I won’t as I can STOP it simply by informing the bank that you have accessed my details WITHOUT my authority - failed to supply a Tax invoice, failed to supply an ABN as is required by Australian Tax Law

Need I go on?

You have failed miserably and you know what makes it worse? - You think you are right

I have been with you(and previous owner) for over 4 years and this is how you treat an old, no problems customer?

I pity those that follow in my footsteps.

Soon to be disgruntled customer
Phone number deleted

and then the piece da resistance - when I point out that they have failed to abide by Australian Law and Australian Tax Law and even Australian banking Law

From: Cool Handle
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 7:12 AM
Subject: [#VWB-596984]: Contact Form - Hosting
To: edenxxxxxxxxxxxx.gmail.com


I wanted to see if you have any further questions or comments regarding this issue. Please contact us if you have any other questions, otherwise you do not need to respond.

Thank you,
Cool Handle
Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: VWB-596984
Department: Pre-Sales
Priority: Low
Status: Pending

I'm the first to admit in this instance I MAY have been able to handle it better - but you would think they would read their emails BEFORE responding, particularly if the customer has already refered to previous emails and problems.

I am now in the market for new hosting for a minimum of 2 sites, that a low hit, steady sites, hell we don't even access the cPanel, simply because there is no need to do so most of the time and I keep nothing on the servers.

The sort of clients you should be happy to have!

The Day We Buried Our Father

The weather could not have put on a better show. It wasn’t cold, it wasn’t windy – in fact a perfect day for anything but a burial and funeral.

We left home at the required time to get to the location of the burial and funeral in plenty of time, even allowing for minor traffic hold-ups.

We did NOT consider the possibility of a major road being shut down completely for 45minutes or more. I don’t think anyone does – not even funeral directors.

45 minutes from the cemetery a log truck goes over the edge of the road and blocks the traffic in BOTH directions. Who could believe it? – Certainly not us and most certainly not the guy in front of us who stormed out of the car and threw his phone at me and said please make it work, it’s new and I HAVE TO phone some people, they are expecting me in 60 minutes.

This guy was dressed in a checked shirt and jeans (with his fly down) I don’t know what made me notice that! I made the phone work and he dialled the number while standing in the middle of the road. He seemed panicked – but then again – so was I. I was trying to contact my daughter and my mother. My daughter somewhere behind me and my mother, waiting for us to arrive, so my father could be laid to rest.

Suddenly I realised that the guy standing beside me was trying to contact my mother. I put two and two together and figured out this guy was connected to the funeral parlour and he was explaining that there was a delay. He finished his call, and I interrupted explaining who we were. He realised that we could all be late. The hearse was behind him somewhere and no-one was going anywhere very soon.

He told me to ring my daughter and tell her to pull up on the side of the road and wait for the hearse, and then pull in tightly behind him, he would get the 4 of us through regardless of everyone else.

He walked ahead of the cars and obviously arranged something. I’m not sure how, but before I knew it, the traffic was moving and we cleared the accident and he pulled over, so did too. I was hoping that my daughter had done as instructed. No sooner had we pulled over than the hearse AND my daughter pulled in behind us.

It turns out the road block allowed traffic through until the hearse and the white car had passed and then the road was shut down again.

We proceeded through to town, of the cars that got through the road block all except 4 of those cars had the same destination in mind.

The burial took place on time, at the end of the ceremony and as people were paying their last respects a noise was heard. It sounded like rocks being thrown into the grave. Turns out it was gentleman, who often played cards with my father and apparently the last time they had played cards (before the fire) a debt of copper coins was owed. He had repaid the debt! – I suppose stranger things have happened.

The service went as planned, the number of people predicted turned up and then some. There were no more glitches, thankfully. The day was a day of reminiscing and reunions. The number of people I had not seen for many years were numerous, all saying thank-you for stopping the evacuation, saying thank-you for the cookbook and saying thank-you for having a father who cared enough to stay and help in their time of need.

I was also told that I am already filling the shoes of my father, I’m sure that is a compliment, but it is very tiring, and I am not sure I want to tread in the shoes of my father. He was brilliant at everything he touched, I’m only a beginner. I have many years of learning ahead of me.

Dear dad – the memorial service did you proud, there was plenty of food and if you had been arranging it – you would not have changed a thing!

XXOO