Have you ever had a period of time where all you did was lose and forget everything?  For the past four months, I’ve been wondering whether I’m in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease or something of that nature.  It makes me worried.  Wait, what was I saying again?

Just the other day, I brought my tennis bag to work so I could go directly to the club and meet a client.  When I opened the bag in the locker room, there were no shorts, only sweat pants.  Not ideal in this mini-70 degree heat wave we’re having, but doable.  As I rummaged through my bag further, I discovered I had no shoes either!  No wonder why my bag was so light, I thought to myself in retrospect.

Walking out of the locker room and to the front desk, I asked Peter whether they had any demo shoes or left-overs.  Unfortunately there were none, and as I waited for Peter to feign a thorough search, I could see my client stretching on the court waiting for me.  Drat, no time to go home and fetch.  Instead, I ponied up $90 bucks and bought a brand new pair of tennis shoes right there, even though I literally have five pairs at home!

SLOW DOWN, BE MINDFUL

The worst part about this story is that it’s not the first time this has happened.  In my rush to get out the door and catch the bus another morning last year, I also ended up at a different club to meet a client with no tennis shoes.  That adventure cost me $130, because all they had were the latest and greatest Nike Air Court Ballistics endorsed by Rafael Nadal!  What a burn.

Over the past four months, I’ve lost my sunglasses ($200), wallet (pain in the ass), flip flops ($65), keys (they are somewhere in the house), and bought new $90 shoes all because I was in a rush.  Furthermore, because I was pressed for time getting to a meeting, I backed out of my house too quickly and crunched my passenger side mirror to bits.  That was a nice $145 bill.  It’s so frustrating, and losing and breaking things is partly the reason why I want to be a minimalist.  If I have nothing, I can’t lose or break anything!

Every single lost item and extraneous expense is due to being in a rush.  I failed to pack for my vacation the night before, which caused me to jolt out the door at 7:00am once the taxi cab arrived and in the process, I misplaced my keys.  I didn’t zip up my tennis bag after changing, so my wallet fell out.  I didn’t pack my bag with shoes because I’ve done it countless times before and just assumed I did so.  I wasn’t about to miss my intermittent bus, and ended up paying $90 as a result.

It’s a real bummer not being able to drive to work like I did for 7 years, three years ago.  I could just chuck everything in the trunk and never have to worry.  Having a car was like having a traveling locker room!  Three years ago, we were stripped of our free $400/month parking and I refused to pay to continue.  Well boo hoo.  I’ve just got to learn to adapt and live with my choices.  But, you got to admit, $400 a month for parking is ridiculous.  Now that I think about it, maybe here’s some reason to rejoice.  The $4,080 I save a year ($4,800 minus $720 for yearly bus pas) from not paying for parking makes up for all these things I’m losing.

MAYBE I DON’T CARE ABOUT MONEY SO MUCH ANYMORE

I’m losing everything because I’m careless and not being mindful about my things.  It’s not a good feeling always being in a rush.  Since everything is logical, perhaps the reason why I’m losing things left and right is because I simply don’t care as much about my money anymore?  Savings and investments are automated, and there’s nothing really left to do if I’m operating within the confines of my monthly budget.  I don’t really mind wasting $90-$130 on shoes and $200 on sunglasses for if I did, I wouldn’t lose them!

Seriously, if I worked for only $9 an hour, it would take 25 hours of work to be able to buy those $200 sunglasses I lost.  If I had to save for 6 months to be able to comfortably afford a new pair of shoes, there’s no way I would ever forget them.  Those polarized Maui Jim’s shades cost a lot of money.  What the hell.  Oh well, I just bought another pair after I lost my Ray Ban Aviators ($160) last year.  Crap, I’m sensing a pattern that is going deeper than just this past quarter!

Having too much disposable income as a reason for losing things and buying things doesn’t seem right and I’m going to take a step back a little.  I needed to buy the tennis shoes because the client was already waiting for me.  I wasn’t about to tell him to wait 30 minutes as I go home and get my gear.  Besides, tennis shoes wear out in 3-4 months for me.  I’ll eventually need a new pair anyway.  It’s just a burn to spend money at a time I don’t need to because of carelessness.

As for losing the other stuff, it grates me because I hate wasting money.  But, I guess I don’t hate wasting money as much as not being mindful and the annoyance of spending an extra minute running through my things to make sure everything is there.

HERE’S WHAT TO DO

From now on, I’m going to do several things, and perhaps you should too if you have a propensity to forget and lose things.

1) Physically write out checklists of the three most common things you do.  In my case, I will write a checklist for my tennis bag, work bag, and vacation bag i.e. Tennis bag check list: rackets, shoes, shades, shorts, t-shirt, ankle braces, socks, grip, elbow sleeve, hat, make sure all zippers are closed after each change.

2) Before rushing out the door to anywhere, catch yourself and go through the checklist for one minute before leaving.  Spending a minute could save you hours of painful looking or replacing, such as going to the DMV to get your driver’s licensed replaced.

3) Mark one or two places where you will always set your things down.  Keys, wallet, and cellphone should all be placed on a specific table every time you come home.  Once you condition yourself, you’ll see yourself misplacing less things.

4) Appreciate your money and pretend that you are a starving student who makes an under minimum wage $3 bucks an hour (my own wage when I was in HS).  At $3 an hour, I’d have to work 70 hours to afford them shades I lost!

5) Slowdown in general.  If you are like me and believe 5 minutes early means on time, you’ve got to just plan better and wake up that much earlier.

I feel like I’m an overloaded truck, driving 75 miles per hour down a windy road with just a loosely bound net covering all the cargo.  Things inevitably get jostled around and break, and sometimes cargo just falls out.  From now on, I’m going to slow down, lighten the load, and tighten the tarp.  I’ll get to where I’m going eventually.

Readers, ever go through a period of losing and forgetting things?  Wallet, keys, sunglasses… they have to be the most common things to lose right?  Wouldn’t you pay $100 for a pair of tennis shoes if your client was waiting on the court instead of make him wait 30 minutes or cancel?

Note: The picture is of my new shoes I had to buy, accompanied with a book I’m supposed to review about negotiations.  Thought it was a nice play on words.

Keep in touch and sign up for my e-mail or RSS feed.

Regards,

Sam

I’ve always trusted my insurance company, which I’ll call TRICKY DICK in this article, to do the right thing. After all, I’ve been a client of theirs for almost 20 years. They’ve benefited from my growth in assets and I now have auto insurance, homeowner’s insurance, valuable personal property insurance and an umbrella policy with them.  Furthermore, I’ve got a relatively large chunk of change in CDs deposited with them as well.

I had a unwelcomed change in my credit card the other day and had to call Tricky Dick to cancel my existing card on file and add a new one. Imagine my surprise when looking over my previous statement that they were billing me 45% more a month in premiums!  What the hell, I thought to myself.  Clearly there must be a mistake.  Oh how wrong I was.

HOW I GOT SCAMMED

Tricky Dick sent out a mandatory home inspector to my house last December to make sure my re-building costs were still the same.  I don’t know what the rule is, but supposedly after so many years, a home inspection is mandated by law, or so a letter from Tricky Dick said.  Uh huh.  The inspector noted the amenities in my house and calculated the square footage. Apparently, the home inspector and Tricky Dick now believe I live in a mini-mansion with a livable square footage estimate 50% higher!  WTF guys!

Based on Tricky Dick’s new square footage estimate, it now costs me $400/sqft to rebuild my house based on the new 50% larger size, and  $600/sqft on my house’s real square footage!  Somehow, the home inspector and Tricky Dick think that instead of hard wood floors, I have gold floors.  All the door knobs have suddenly turned from crystal to diamonds.  Meanwhile, my roof is not just any old roof, it’s clearly a landing pad for one of my Airwolf Helicopters.  Come on guys.  $400-600/square foot in building cost is ridiculous!

When I asked the Tricky Dick insurance woman how much the building costs are for her area in Colordao, she said $100-$200/sqft. Exactly, so why the F does Tricky Dick think it costs 4-6x more to build a house in San Francisco?  It’s not like California has special wonder board, windows, nails, tiles, roofing, and wood.  Building costs are roughly the same, and only the labor might be higher.

She sheepishly agreed and said she’d look into it.

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

This is what really pisses me off. Despite telling Tricky Dick to look up my house on the SF county records to see the real square footage, she said it is up to me to prove the real size of my house!  Her company prevents her from logging on to the SF county records, Zillow, and all these other online real estate companies because of “security” reason.  It is absolutely ludicrous that I have to fight the crooked home inspector’s assessment.  Good thing I have an appraisal report from last year when I refinanced, detailing the floor plans, square footage and all the details within my house.  If I didn’t, I’d have to go spend $700 to get an appraisal and then send it in.  What a waste of time and money!

When companies waste my time, that’s when everything goes to hell.  I did some investigating by talking to my friends in the real estate industry and what I found was disturbing.

They basically said home appraisers/inspectors are henchmen used to enrich the banks and insurance companies. With the banks, home appraisers manipulate the value higher so that a seller can sell to the buyer, even if the value is lower than reality. If a home does not appraise for what the buyer wants to pay, no transaction happens and nobody gets paid.

For insurance companies, home inspectors are asked to increase the value of the home by increasing the square footage and embellish the value of the amenities.  Instead of laminate floors, they’ll put in Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors, or in my case gold floors.  Instead of simple lights, they’ll enter crystal chandeliers to use to juice their estimates.  This way, the insurance companies can charge a higher premium for coverage.  In my case, Tricky Dick plans to charge me a full $1,200 more a year.

I am so disappointed that after all the money I have parked with Tricky Dick and after 20 years of being a client, they’d want to screw me like this.  What the hell happened to more customer protection after the financial downturn?  Apparently nothing much has changed.

GAME PLAN TO FIGHT BACK

My first instinct as a blogger was to contact Tricky Dick on Twitter and ask them for help. But just like the other five tweets I’ve sent over the past 12 months, nobody has ever responded.  Why have a Twitter account if you don’t ever respond to your customers?  Their social media effort is a D-.

I then called a nice representative who said she would investigate. She did and told me to send in proof of my home floor area, which is still a pain in the ass despite having the appraisal on file somewhere.  I will send the document in and tell them to credit my account back for the two months  overcharge. I will then ask them to reimburse three hours of my time and stress dealing with this bullshit valued at $500/hour, or $1,500 total.

If they do not give me something close to $1,500 credit, I will withdraw hundreds of thousands in cash deposits and shut all my insurance product accounts.  If they keep me as a happy customer, they will probably get hundreds of thousands in deposits over the next 10 years.  If not, I walk.  I will vote with my money.

TOO BAD, SO SAD

What makes this situation worse is that Tricky Dick is a great company 99% of the time.  Their customer service is excellent and their rates for CDs and insurance products are competitive.  Every time I talk to someone there, they are very helpful.  It’s too bad a black sheep in the home insurance department at Tricky Dick convinced the home inspector to over appraise my home by 50% to make more money.  To over appraise by 10-20% is reasonable, but by 50% is absolute hogwash.

Tricky Dick, I know you will never get back to me online.  Just know that it’s not good to scam your customers, especially ones that have been loyal customers for two decades and who have a blog.  Re-instill the faith I’ve had in you guys for all these years and make it right.  After sending in my recent home appraisal, telling me it will take two weeks to have your corrupt home inspection department look into it is now wasting your company’s time and money.  Just do the right thing and stop dicking around!

Home insurance summary: You don’t want to be under-insured or over-insured. If you are under-insured, then you lose in case of a disaster, but you save on premiums.  If you are over-insured, the insurance company rapes you with higher premiums, but then you have the right to build a Sultan’s Palace.  If you are over or under insured by ~10%, that’s fine and its not worth worrying about.  Just make sure you call and review your coverage once a year.

Readers, have you ever been scammed by a bank or insurance company?  Share with us how you plan to fight for your rights!

Regards,

Sam

I’ve had my Citibank home rebate credit card for 7 years.  It’s my one and only personal credit card I use for everything.  Once a year, a rebate of 1% of total spending gets credited toward my mortgage.  I was totally happy with the card and then one day, I get a letter from Citibank saying they are changing it out of the blue.  They didn’t ask me whether it is OK or not, they unilaterally made the decision for me.

I’m not particularly fond of credit cards which give me rewards points so I can go buy things I don’t need.  Unfortunately, as a replacement card, that’s exactly what I’m getting!

It really gets my goat that a credit card issuer can just changes things at a whim.  You’d think that after all that’s happened in the financial world, there would be more protection for consumers.  But, as always, I’m disappointed with how my tax dollars are spent, and nothing really changes, just the people in power.

THEIR LETTER TO ME

“Dear Sam,

We are pleased to inform you that we have changed your Citi Home Rebate Platinum Select Card account to the Cii Thank You account that continues to offer a variety of exciting benefits. con’t”.

My first reaction is, WTF!  I am perfectly happy with my existing credit card as it helps me pay down my mortgage and I have no desire to try and amass 500,000 points so I can buy a can of golf balls!

I am very disappointed that I was never asked first whether I’d like to change cards.  If they just explained to me the reason for the change and asked first, I’d feel better.  But, to simply cancel my card and replace it is just not right.

Here’s what I have to do:

* Call all vendors and update them with my new credit card details.  I put everything on auto deduct, which means I’ve got to probably spend an hour calling/editing the club, insurance company, and various online accounts like Amazon.  Time is money, and this is pissing me off with undue wasted time.

* Go online and figure out how to link the new card and cancel the old card.  That’s probably going to take another 30 minutes.

* Go through the documents and understand what my new interest rate, credit limit, and any hidden fees are.  Another 15-30 minutes of wasted time.

* Figure out Citibank’s Thank You Network and make sure the new card is linked to the Network so I get points automatically.

* Worry that I’ve missed some account and linked something inappropriately, and won’t know until I get some late charge which I have to fight, resulting in more time wasted.

* The only benefit from all this change is that if there were any hackers close to figuring out my credit card info, my information is on the run again.

TIME IS MONEY GUYS, AND YOU’RE WASTING MY TIME!

The unilateral decision by Citibank is very unsettling.  The CARD Act passed on Feb 22, 2010 is supposed to protect us from unfair interest rate hikes and double billing cycles.  But, what about protecting the consumer from getting “gazumped” as they say in England?  Apparently, there is no protection.

Readers, have you ever had your credit card company cancel and change your card without asking you before?  What are our rights as consumers?  Would you use this new card, or try and find a new one?

Happy Memorial Day!

Regards,

Sam

* In order to pay for President Obama’s $450 billion Jobs Act Bill, he has proposed removing the muni bond tax exemption benefit for those above the 28% marginal tax rate (~$200,000 for singles).  Given those in the 33% and 35% tax brackets invest the most in muni bonds, there will be a huge sell-off, and a resultant rise in borrowing costs for State governments.  This will lead to more budget shortfalls due to higher expenses, and less local construction.  As a result, MORE jobs will be lost or never to be re-created!

Taking advantage of State level governments to pay for a Federal Jobs Bill is very astute.  The more States get crushed, the more dependents and voters will be created for the Crusher. 

If you haven’t heard, the United States of America is having some serious state budget problems!  It’s estimated that 44 out of 50 states will have a budget shortfall for fiscal year 2012, which starts on July 1, 2011.  The largest absolute dollar offender is my home state of California, with a $25.4 BILLION shortfall that accounts for a whopping 29.3% of the state’s 2011 budget!

Everything is relative though, and there are three states more screwed than California based on a deficit as a percentage of 2011 budget: Nevada at 42%, New Jersey at 37.4%, and surprisingly Texas at 31.5%.  The overall US shortfall is $112 billion dollars, accounting for 17.6% of 2012′s overall budget.

THERE’S NO PLEASANT SOLUTION

We’ve heard the alarms ring loudly by many prominent analysts in 2010 that 2011 is the year of reckoning for states.  You’ve seen muni bonds sell off in 1Q11 as a result.  Yet, it’s so funny to see how strong the economy and stock markets are.  In reality, nobody really cares about such massive budget deficits.  If they did, they wouldn’t be buying up stocks like crazy.

The solution to balancing our state budgets is quite clear: 1) cut spending and 2) raise taxes.  No politician wants to be the one to do either, which is how we got here in the first place.  I proposed several months ago to introduce a Renter’s Tax to raise money from all Americans, and not just homeowners.  Many of you shot the proposal down, presumably because most of you are renters and think part of your rent goes to pay for property tax.  Maybe, but all one has to do is compare the absolute amount of state taxes you pay vs. the homeowner and you will see a huge difference.  Tell me, how does a homeowner raise the rent to pay for his/her property taxes when most homeowners live in their own homes?

Is it so bad that all citizens pitch in to pay for public services equally?  I don’t think so.  The Renter’s Tax is a great example of how we are all fooked on a larger scale.  We all demand access and benefits the government provides, but we don’t all want to pay for it the same.  Let the “rich”, who consume the least amount of public resources pay for it instead.  Brilliant!  I’m sure a Renter’s Tax proposal would anger a lot of people, and guess what?  That’s THE POINT!  Everybody thinks they pay their fair share already, and nobody wants to pay more.  It takes sacrifice people.

What people don’t understand is that if the most indebted states announce fiscal emergencies or bankruptcies, we are ALL going to pay, not just the wealthy who pay most of the taxes.  The stock market will implode.  Muni bonds will implode.  Companies will start firing people and taxes will go up anyway!

TAKE THE MEDICINE NOW, BUT MAYBE NOT!

If you like big government, just look at how well supposedly smart politicians have done in balancing their own budgets.  Why anybody would entrust a stranger to overspend their money is beyond me.

There is another solution though, and it is a very easy one.  All states have to do is play a game of chicken until the Federal Government can’t take the pain anymore.  No stage is bigger than the Presidential stage in Washington DC, and he and his buddies Timothy and Benny will have NO CHOICE but to bail out the most indebted states!  We’ve seen it happen in Europe with Greece and Ireland, whose economies are smaller than California’s.  Surely, we will see it happen again in America.

The Moral Hazard Of America is alive and well.  Let’s watch it play out again in 2011.

Readers, how do you feel about the state budget problems?  Do you think we are screwed?  Or, do you think the problem is overblown?

Why do you think President Obama wants to crush local State governments?  Do you think it’s a way to make people more dependent on Federal Government?

Best,

Sam

Linda shines at Davis Polk & Wardwell, one of our nation’s most prestigious law firms.  Just eight years after Yale Law School, at the age of 34, Linda achieved her life long dream of making partner. At last I have arrived, Linda first thought to herself, recounting all the hours she spent since high school studying to get perfect grades and a perfect resume. That was five years ago.

One day while working on an important case, Linda walked by the pantry only to overhear her associates whisper about her. She couldn’t quite catch everything they said, but phrases such as, “She’s almost 40,” and “Is she still single?” zinged her ears. Never one to doubt, Linda kept going for the rest of the week. The case is the priority, her mission, if you will. Her clients are fighting a hostile takeover from a competitor, and she and Davis, Polk & Wardwell must defend.

Breaking Down

At 11:00 PM on Friday, she finally returns exhausted to her grey-scaled, minimalism-inspired condo at the St. Regis Residences. With a soft glass of Cabernet, Linda looks out to the Bay Bridge and begins to cry. Why am I crying?, Linda thinks to herself. I successfully defended my client and the competitor is looking to sweeten their offer. My clients will be filthy rich! I’ll be filthy rich.

Linda is unhappy because at 39 she is alone. There’s nobody to share her $2 million a year income with and so she shares it with her apartment instead. She buys the most expensive amenities, such as the textured Brazilian cherrywood floors and Waterworks fixtures. She pays $2,600 a month in homeowners association dues alone so that she can have all the pampering in the world. One touch of a button and housekeeping will come and take away her laundry as well as shine her marble bathroom floors if she asked. What’s the point of working so hard if not only to simplify my life?, Linda wonders.

If Looks Could Kill

Despite the frequent client wining and dining, Linda is extraordinarily lean. With high cheekbones and sunken cheeks, she looks almost like a gaunt cross-country runner who indulges in the latest protein bars. Her eyes are green and intense; she is a woman of focus and intent. She’ll snap you with her stare, yet is unable to melt you with her smile.

Linda can’t believe that almost fourteen years have passed since she first graduated from law school. People told her that her thirties would be the best years of her life. In many ways they were, as she had one success after another in her career. But, despite all the studying in college, she misses her twenties because she had her youth and her future. As trivial as it may seem, Linda misses having long hair and the ability to wear a pony tail if she wanted to. No, that’s unprofessional and inconvenient, she told herself once she turned thirty. If I am to be taken seriously, I need to have shoulder length hair that is simple, yet powerful. Linda has all the power she’s ever wanted now.

The Case

The one that got away was not a case, but a man she met during work right after she got promoted. He was a new lateral hire who came in as a second-year associate. Peter, age 28, was her subordinate. After many endless weeks of working together, they fell in love. On the weekends they would get away on road trips up to Napa Valley and stay at their favorite resort, Auberge du Soleil. Linda paid the $700 a night resort fee of course.

One weekend, as they were lounging by the pool, sipping Arnold Palmers and holding hands, the most senior partner’s wife appeared. Peter and Linda’s hands immediately released, but it was too late. The partner’s wife had already spotted them and she was shocked. How could one of their newly promoted partners and a second year associate be having a relationship? The partner’s wife was aghast, and Linda and Peter were ashamed.

Linda was petrified that all her hard work would be for nothing if word got out that she was having a relationship with one of her subordinates, seven years her junior. No, she’s worked too hard to let some man ruin her career. Linda rushed over and spoke to the partner’s wife in private, pleading her not to say a word. She agreed, but only if Linda stopped seeing Peter. Linda acquiesced.

Alone In The Darkness

It’s been five years since the incident, and Linda’s career has been on a rocket ship’s path. Word never got out about her fling with her subordinate and Peter left several years ago for richer pastures. Linda has everything she’s ever wanted, yet feels empty because she has nobody to share her good fortune with. Next week she turns forty and she worries whether she will be alone, forever.

Readers, what would do if you were Linda five years ago? Would you have defied the partner’s wife’s wishes for your love of Peter? Or, would you do as Linda did and break it off because she invested too much in her career?  Love or Career, which would you choose?

* Note: All names and the law firm have been changed for privacy.

Regards,

Sam

President Obama’s State of The Union address was well delivered.  He said almost everything right – from restoring spending discipline to improving education to allowing everyone access to affordable health care.  The one thing President Obama didn’t say correctly was regarding taxation.  He said illogically not to let millionaires get away with their tax cuts at the expense of X, Y, and Z.

Can anybody guess where the inconsistency is in President Obama’s words on income taxes?  On the one hand, President Obama attacks millionaires, yet he so strongly pushes to raise taxes on individuals making only $200,000 and couples making $250,000!  Last time I checked, someone making $200,000 a year isn’t making a million dollars.  And someone making $200,000 a year isn’t necessarily a millionaire!

SAVING FACE THANKS TO POOR NEGOTIATIONS

I was very disappointed when the Democrats rolled over so easily this past December and accepted Republican’s demands for no tax increases.  Sure, the Republicans wanted permanent tax rates and settled for a 2 year tax cut extension.  However, it’s clear the Democrats gave too much.  The budget deficit is a big problem, and by not raising taxes we will surely pay for our excesses because it’s not enough to just cut spending.  Poor children of America.

All President Obama had to do was raise taxes on millionaires, you know, the ones making over a million a year!  If you make $1,000,000 a year, there is no way in hell you will be hurting if you have to pay 4% more on any money made over $379,000.  Besides, the $379,000 figure is so arbitrary whereas $1 million, although still arbitrary, is less so given the vernacular we use to describe rich people.

There’s no way you will ever publicly complain about a 4% tax increase if you are making over a million bucks.  You can live in expensive Manhattan, and still live a damn good life earning $1,000,000 paying 39% in Federal taxes.  It’s not ideal, but it’s doable at the margin.

I’m absolutely convinced that Republicans would have agreed to a $1,000,000 income level threshold where tax increases kick in.  We have missed the opportunity to raise taxes on the true millionaires and billionaires of America whose revenue we so desperately need to pay down our deficit.  Leave the rest of us alone!

2011 FEDERAL MARGINAL TAX BRACKETS

As you can see from the table above, the more you make the even more you pay.  I’ve long argued for a flat tax to simplify the tax code, raise tax revenue, and provide more incentive for people to do great things.  Tack on 5-10% state tax rates and it’s understandable why those making ~$200-$500,000 a year who live in expensive cities have something to argue about.  Slap on a 40% tax bracket for anything over $1,000,000 to ensure we capture the revenue of our multi-millionaire and billionaire friends and let’s pay off the budget deficit!

Readers, what did you think of the State of The Union address?  Why do you think the Democrats didn’t argue harder for the $1 million income threshold?  Doesn’t that make a lot of sense?

Regards,

Sam

On Sunday, January 16th Yakezie.com received around 6,300 visitors thanks to Little House’s (Yakezie Scholarship Committee Member) efforts to reach out to other organizations online.  That organization was Fastweb.com, a site that helps students find monetary support for education around the web.

Not expecting such a surge in traffic, immediately things started going haywire.  My registration e-mail notifications started flooding in, and then personal e-mails started coming in asking why they didn’t get an e-mail confirmation to register to the allow them to apply.  Frantically, I tried addressing all problems over comments, Twitter, and e-mail myself as Chris was not near a computer.  When Chris returned, he did some testing and things seemed to work, but because of the sheer flood of visitors, things locked up.

Our e-mail system (Google) supposedly has a ~200 limit per day on sending e-mail notifications for new registrants.  After about 1:30pm on Sunday, the 200 limit was quickly hit but the registrants kept coming in.  As a result, any eager student who was looking to register and compete could not.  Oh my, how bad I felt for them.

MY FEAR AND GUILT

The main reason why I started the Yakezie Scholarship vertical was so that Members could rally around a common cause to help support a person financially to further their education.  We all have different personalities and goals, but I strongly believe that the Yakezie Scholarship and our motto of selflessly helping others will hold us together for the long term.  Education is the single most important attribute one can have and develop to get ahead.

I had two fears before launching the scholarship initiative. The first fear was that there wouldn’t be enough interest in writing a 700-1000 word essay to compete to win.  Success takes effort and audacity.  As a result, we made the essay process as meritocratic and transparent as possible.  If you comply with the guidelines, your Scholarship gets posted, readers vote, and the top three vote-getters win.

The second fear was that there would be too much interest.  With this fear, I decided to increase the number of winners from one to three, and work harder to rally support for the Scholarship fund.  For two consecutive months, Members, Challengers, and readers have pledged over $1,000 to help support three essay winners for their educational endeavors.  I’m so proud of everyone who have contributed.

The first Yakezie Scholarship received a total of 14 entrants.  Although I highlighted beforehand that we would only run the top 10 as decided by the committee, I felt bad denying someone who spent the effort a chance to win.  And so, I dealt with my guilt by running all 14 essays.  I was supportive of every single one of them, making sure they submitted all pertinent info while guiding them a long the way.

With the second Yakezie Scholarship, I now fear we will have over 300 applicants with only 3 winners.  I mentioned in a post on Yakezie.com that we would run the top 30 if we had more than 20 entrants.  I never imagined that our little initiative would receive potentially 10X the number just a month later!

HOW TO DEAL

I now fear more having too many applicants over too little going forward.  With a few applicants (<30), we can personally reach out to everyone.  With many applicants (100+), we can’t accept them all to be published since there is a limit to when each contest will end.  Furthermore, the Yakezie Network is a personal finance and lifestyle blog network where we plan to run our own content.  We’re careful to balance all three verticals of Personal Finance, Lifestyle, and Scholarship.

Thinking Out Loud Solutions:

1) We run our own Member Articles and guest posts on Yakezie.com’s homepage, while concurrently publishing the top 30 Scholarship Applicants on another page on Yakezie.com that can be found via the home page.

2) We rule out all essays which do not follow guidelines (i.e. 700-1000 words, answers one question, provides all pertinent contact info, bio, etc).  We are surprised by how many applicants don’t follow instructions.

3) We expand the Yakezie Scholarship Committee beyond myself, Chris, Jennifer, and a friend of mine so that more of us can evaluate the articles to be published and ensure the ones who follow directions and are the best written go through.

4) We build better systems on Yakezie.com to handle the submissions and sort automatically.  Once we have a great system in place, we should be able to automatically sort by word count, title, etc and make evaluating easier.  We may need to permanently upgrade our servers from VPS to dedicated to handle future spikes.

I STILL WONDER WHY ALL THE TIME

800 words later, I’m coming to terms with my guilt because I realize I can’t help everybody.  Perhaps it’s due to my travels abroad that I’m so conflicted and think about poverty and inequality constantly.  Why are some people born with nothing, while others are born with everything?  How does someone born with less compete effectively against someone born with every advantage?  The answer I believe is through education.  Education is what allows us to make better life choices.  Education opens doors to new opportunities and provides a perpetual gift back to humanity.  Education is what sets us free.

The only thing I can control is making the Yakezie Scholarship as smooth and meritocratic as possible.  I’m trying hard every single day to make this opportunity work.  Inevitably there will be kinks along the way.  Sometimes, I wonder whether it’s easier to just give up.  I could free up 10+ hours a week, reduce my stress and not have to feel so bad about trying to do some good.  But then again, where’s the challenge in that?

Best,

Sam

Readers, do you ever feel guilty about how good you have it?  Does your guilt ever consume you so much that it becomes debilitating?  Do you ever wonder why some are so fortunate and others are not?

Every two to four years we have government elections and every two to four years I wonder the same thing, “Does my vote matter?” In California, we have two Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman (R) and Jerry Brown (D) who have the most vicious attack ads I’ve ever seen. Their ads make them BOTH sound unappealing, which makes common citizens like me depressed that no change will come.

I have to think there are attack ads in almost every city in America which is resulting in the same voter ambivalence. Am I wrong? You tell me. Every single politician says the same thing:

* I plan to change the way the Capital is run. No more politics as usual.
* I plan to balance the budget.
* I am qualified because of my experience in politics, or my experience in business.
* My opponent is unqualified.
* I answer to no one but you.
* Wonk, wonk, blah, blah, schimmy, schimmy, bang, bang.

Really?  Come on.  You and I know that politicians can’t please everyone and often times lie through their teeth.  They can say they will cut taxes, but there’s no way that they will say exactly where they will cut spending.  They say that they answer to no one, but we all know that the Unions, lobbyists, and other interest groups have them in their back pockets.  It’s sad, because it sure feels like my vote doesn’t matter.

YOU KNOW IT

Math doesn’t lie.  If you must know, there’s been a steadily declining turnout in voters for decades.  The average hovers around 50% for Presidential elections, which of course we have no power over due to the Electoral College system.  For local elections, the turnout is often times only 25-30%.  The reasons for a lack of turnout are as follows:

* The government has become so big that nobody believes they can fight the Borg.
* Trust among politicians is in a structurally permanent decline due to over-promises.
* People feel they are too busy and are too lazy.
* Attack ads make everybody depressed.
* People are afraid that if they vote they will get spam and unwanted solicitations. There’s even a fear that once you register to vote, the omniscient government can spy on your every move.
* There are too many candidates and issues to vote on, so people decide to vote on none.
* Officials don’t make it easy to register to vote. Why do we have to register separately in the first place?
* People believe that other people are rational and will vote for the right candidate.

As someone who believes everything rational, it’s easy to argue that if things are so bad, and if people care enough, they’ll go out and vote for improvement.  As such, why bother voting if things aren’t really bothering you enough?  And if things are, well, others are likely bothered enough to go vote, so let them go do all the legwork!  It’s just like a thread on car problems, only those with enough bad experiences and angst post.  Sooner or later, the car manufacturer will do an upgrade, or else face losing its precious customers.

On the flip side, one can argue that since only 50% or less turn out to vote, your vote carries twice or more the weight of a usual vote, and you have an opportunity to really make a difference.  Too bad numbers don’t support this thesis.

SOLUTIONS TO INCREASE VOTER TURNOUT

* Make it a law that everyone must vote. If you don’t vote, you have to pay a fine or go streaking.
* Make it a law that everyone must study the 200 page voter guide every two years and get a 50% or better passing rate or else pay a fine or go streaking.
* Lower taxes.
* Make voting easier by allowing people to just walk up to a booth, write down all their information for registration and vote.
* Create a website that lists all the people who haven’t voted & make them go streaking.
* Make it a law for ad campaigns to tell the truth and not bend truths or else get fined or taken off the air.
* Make it clear that if you vote, you will not be put on some government watch-list, like the one you’re on right now by the IRS.

I feel it in my gut that voting is a good thing because our country is based on democracy and freedom.  Thousands of people have died to defend our principles and rights.  Hence, to not vote feels like we are dishonoring their legacy.  Unfortunately, I still don’t believe my vote matters that much.  How sad.

Despite the fact that Republicans have taken control of Congress, the Democrats still control the Senate and the Presidency.  Therefore, nothing really changes.  Back to the same old stuff!

Readers, do you think your vote matters?  Any suggestions on how to improve voter turnout?  Do you think anything changes after this election?

Regards,

Sam

PS Remember, if you are one of the 47% of Americans who don’t pay taxes, please have mercy on those who do pay taxes by not voting on someone who wants to raise our taxes further.  Really appreciate it!  Thanks!