I recently switched cell phone carriers. Though I never had any significant problems with the old carrier, it never rang the excellence bell. That, and my favorite cell phone carrier was suddenly an option again…
We switched from Straight Talk to Ting, and I’m thrilled to be back.
When we discuss finances — loans, payments, credit cards, investments, and mortgages — there is usually one important item missing from the discussion: risk.
It’s scary how much we ignore it. Perhaps we hope that if we don’t even acknowledge risk, we can’t be harmed by it.
No matter your current situation, you can get a raise. It’s not a trendy new concept. It’s not even hard. It’s a matter of financial discipline.
Be forewarned, though. It requires following two simple (but not necessarily easy) steps.
I collect good stories about business. I eat up examples of good people working at good companies who make good products and do customer service with excellence. I cherish every model company who actively treats people well, from team members to customers to stockholders.
I just can’t get enough of it. I find these stories undeniably encouraging. They hint at the many benefits of capitalism and the entrepreneurial spirit. They make me desire to find something — anything — and make it better.
But I apparently think about these things so often that I forget the other kind of companies still exist.
Wife needed some clothes. She was long overdue and I trust her judgment. So we budgeted $100 that month for clothes, even though she didn’t find anything. She looked off and on for another two months, until one day when she was about to spend $300 on clothing she just found.
Gasp. Time to clutch my chest and feel the agony of spending money. And such a big amount!
At least, that’s how everything went early in our marriage. Wife would say we needed to make a purchase and I — not knowing enough of our finances to be very involved — would go into panic lock-down mode.
This time, though, it was peaceful.
