How high should our expectations be for investment performance over the long haul? Over the last 50 years the S&P 500 has earned an annual return of 9.5% per year on average. Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University uses a 12% annual return in the mutual fund section of the class. There’s many other seemingly reliable sources [...]
Annual Investment Return: What is a Reasonable Expectation? is a post from No Debt Plan
With the up and down in the oil market there’s no telling where gas might end up next. Whether or not we’re at $3.60 per gallon today or $4.25 per gallon tomorrow, you can be fairly certain the days of 99 cent gas are gone. As prices continue to rise — both this summer and [...]
7 Unconventional Ways to Save Money on Gas is a post from No Debt Plan
Whether you’re looking to buy your first home or you recently sold your house you might be pondering buying a new house in the near future. Rates are at historic lows, and the housing market has taken a pounding over the last few years. Depending on what area of the country you live in home [...]
Should You Buy a House Now Before Rates and Prices Go Up? is a post from No Debt Plan
By this point I’m hoping the majority of you have filed your federal income tax return for last year. Today is April 15th, but you technically still have until the 18th to file this year. For those of you that have filed you are likely wondering where exactly your refund is at. When will you [...]
How to Track Your Federal Income Tax Refund and How Fast You’ll Get It is a post from No Debt Plan
You don’t want to run your budget like the government (10 ways to run your budget like the government). Well, unless you enjoy budget deficits, having to continually borrow money to fund day to day operations, and having your creditors constantly on your back. Contrast the financial “success” of the federal and state governments with [...]
6 Ways to Run Your Life Like a Business is a post from No Debt Plan
You procrastinated, didn’t you?
It’s two days before Christmas. You technically have two shopping days (including today) left unless you’re really gutsy and want to try to get something on Christmas morning. The stores are either sold out of everything or there’s so picked over that it is hit or miss… making last minute shopping a panicked disaster.
You could go the gift card route… but unless it is a really unique store that you don’t have the expertise to shop in then the person will wonder if you bought it the day before Christmas. Avoid this if possible or use it as an extreme last minute emergency gift.
Have no fear. You still have time to not only make amends, but find or make a great gift for that special someone.
Everyone loves family photos. There’s always room for another snapshot to sit on the office desk or on the mantle. You could take a photograph from earlier in the year and give it as a gift. That would be decent.
However, I would encourage you to take it a step above. Grab a camera or hire a photographer. Get the family together. Take a nice photo and search out a specific frame for the shot.
In other words you can take a simple gift and put some thought and effort into it. Finding a great frame can really change a photo and be one of those things the gift receiver will appreciate for years to come.
Appropriate for: parents, grown children, grandparents
With the struggles in the economy you may not be able to afford to take your spouse to the nicest steakhouse in town. No worries, you can bring the steakhouse home to you!
I have to give my wife props on this one. We usually go to Fleming’s for a romantic dinner at least once per year. The dinner is usually on or around our anniversary, and it normally hits us for about $150 with tip and dessert. (And it is worth every penny for the experience.)
However, $150 is a lot of money to drop on one meal. That’s why we only do it once per year!
She decided to see if we could recreate the Fleming’s experience at home. That means filet mignon, Fleming’s potatoes, and creme brulee. We bought everything at the grocery store, she found some receipes, bada bing, bada boom, next thing you know we’ve got the same meal sitting on our plates. It was absolutely delicious.
So take some time to do some research and cook up a nice meal. It’ll save you money and be greatly appreciated. Food always tastes better when someone else cooks it.
Appropriate for: Your husband/wife/significant other
My wife hates doing laundry so in our household I do laundry every week. Likewise I hate ironing so she does the ironing.
But there are still things I absolutely hate doing that I’ll still do because, well, someone has to do them. I’ll wash the cars, or worse, wax the cars. I don’t particularly enjoy doing it, but I do it.
One of the best gifts my wife gives me throughout the year is stepping up to do a chore that I normally do. She’ll knock out the laundry during a stressful week, or she’ll completely dominate the dirt on our vehicles. It’s awesome.
Likewise you can do the same for someone this holiday season. Offer to do something they hate. It can be something that happens right now during the dark days of winter, or it can be a kind of “I owe you” in another season.
You can increase the appreciation of this gift if you also pay for them to do something relaxing while you do the chore. It can be simple like drawing your wife a bath, or more in depth like sending them out to the spa or to the movies. Add to it as your budget sees fit.
Appropriate for: anyone with chores
Are you scrambling out there before the holidays or are all your gifts perfectly wrapped and under the tree?
3 Last Minute Gift Ideas That Won’t Break You Financially is a post from No Debt Plan
I sit down and do my family’s budget at least once per week. Our budget spreadsheet also has a separate tab that tracks our net worth, but I only really look at it about once every month. One of the items that we track is the value of our vehicles. We might not be able [...]
Our Used Car’s Value Has Increased Significantly. Why? is a post from No Debt Plan
It’s an age-old financial question: to pay down debt or to save extra funds for a rainy day? As with any personal finance question it really depends on your personal situation. That having been said here are some guidelines you can use to determine what is best for you. Risk, Emergencies, and Stability Having money [...]
Saving Versus Paying Down Debt: It’s All About Risk, Interest, Access, and Cash Flow is a post from No Debt Plan
Remember last week when I told you to ask for discounts when you move? I was so confident that utilizing that strategy works because I had just used it to secure some major discounts myself.
There are two instances where we used our move to get a discount: our home internet, and our cable. We used AT&T DSL at home and paid a premium price for it. I was so frustrated when we first bought our house at one of the local cable companies. Incompetence reigned there. When I called AT&T the gentleman on the phone sold me a package — one I was happy to pay more for — simply because he took care of my need and came up with a solution. (Says a lot about psychology and buying, right?)
We got our 12 month deal, but after it expired it jumped to $47.95 per month. I should have called back to negotiate a discount, but I didn’t. We happily paid a higher price simply because the representative on the phone took care of me when I called. I didn’t get the run around, and I was happy.
That is until we moved…
It went well at the beginning. I called and informed them we were canceling our service at our house, and wanted new service at the place we were renting in our new city. I was pushed to a couple of different departments (one to cancel, then one to order) and was delighted to learn we would be getting an awesome $19.99 per month deal for the first 12 months. We could even keep our old modem, and once they transferred everything all we had to do was plug in the modem and we would be good to go.
Oh, if it were only so easy.
Our first bill showed up about a week ago for $35 per month service and a $13 charge that we would later discover was the charge for plugging our own internet in.
Seriously.
Very frustrated — I thought we had this taken care of — we called customer service back, bounced through the phone tree, and then my wife got a pretty rude representative who wouldn’t budget. He said our $19.99 service was really $35 per month service, but we would start receiving rebates on the cost in two or three months. Oh, and that this all should have been explained to us, so there was nothing he could do.
As if it were my fault I agreed to continue to be their customer going off of what was told to me on the phone rather than what should have been told to me on the phone. Awesome.
After my wife wrapped up her conversation with the customer service rep, I immediately started Googling for AT&T’s Executive Customer Service.
More on that in a second, but first…
What’s Executive Customer Service?
These are the people that make things happen. They work in the “Office of the President” or “Office of the CEO”. They’re folks that have a long tenure with the company, and actually know how to fix issues rather than reading off of a script like a robot. They also understand the cost of bad PR and of losing a customer in the process.
If you ever have an issue with a company try the normal phone tree route once. If you don’t get effective resolution start searching for “[company name] Executive Customer Service”. It is usually pretty easy to find.
…back to our story. As I was searching I soon became even more frustrated because there are multiple executive customer numbers! The most dominant one was for AT&T Mobility (cell phones) and while I knew they could eventually get me in the right place I didn’t want to deal with the hassle.
I ended up finding resolution through social media and I’ll share that with you in a few days. (Stay tuned.)
I wanted to provide a specific example where calling Executive Customer Service worked without having to use other methods. That example for me is DirecTV.
When we moved we canceled our DirecTV package. We had been customers for over three years just like with AT&T’s DSL service. When we moved I was informed — for the first time except probably for some very fine print — that there would be a $200 charge to get out of our contract thanks to upgrading to HD DVR when our normal DVR continued to fail on us.
As you can imagine I was not amused. Regular customer service was the same result as with AT&T — “I’m sorry sir, you should have been informed.”
Hung up, Tweeted about it, and within 24 hours not only had someone from the Office of the President talking to me, but my bill taken care of and boxes to send my equipment shipped to me.
Social media is changing the game when it comes to customer service and satisfaction. Stay tuned because later this week I’ll walk you through the steps to take to get satisfaction!
Skip the Phone Tree; Use Executive Customer Service for Results is a post from No Debt Plan
Personal finance education in America is a mess. Most American families live paycheck to paycheck, have little savings, and are not prepared for retirement or an emergency. This lack of understanding in the basic fundamentals of finances devastates a family. They can’t retire on time or an emergency sinks them financially. Foreclosures, bankruptcies, and divorce [...]
How to Fight for Your Children’s Financial Lives is a post from No Debt Plan
