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Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

How Insurance Companies And Appraisers Scam Their Customers

Updated: by 78 Comments

Insurance companies and appraisers sometimes scam their customers to make more money. Here’s a story about how my homeowner’s insurance premium got raised without my consent.

I’ve always trusted my insurance company, which I’ll call TRICKY DICK, to do the right thing. After all, I’ve been a client of theirs for 22 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 on 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.



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The Top Schools In The Nation Are All Party Schools!

Updated: by 52 Comments

Let’s look at the top schools in the nation. Could it be that the top schools are all party schools? It looks like it!

The Top 20 Party Schools In The Nation, Ranked By The Princeton Review For 2021:

  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison
  2. West Virginia University
  3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  4. Lehigh University
  5. Bucknell University
  6. University of Iowa
  7. University of Mississippi
  8. Syracuse University
  9. Tulane University
  10. Colgate University
  11. University of California―Santa Barbara
  12. University of Delaware
  13. University of Rhode Island
  14. Wake Forest University
  15. College of Charleston
  16. University of Maine
  17. University of Vermont
  18. University of Florida
  19. University of Colorado―Boulder
  20. Florida State University

What do Penn State, Texas A&M, University of Illinois, Purdue, and Arizona State University have in common?  They are considered the Top 5 best schools in the nation according to recruiters!  Wall Street Journal has this unique ranking system where they essentially ask corporate recruiters to rank their best schools.

I’ve seen a lot of college surveys before, and not once have I ever seen any of these schools in the Top 5, let alone in the top 10.  Let’s be honest, for the same cost, would you go to one of these schools over Harvard, Yale, Penn, MIT, Michigan, or Berkeley?  Most would say “probably not,” so what gives?

Let’s have a look at why recruiters are so excited about these schools.

* Size. The average student population of the top 5 schools is around 28,000.  This means that out of a class size of 7,000, there’s a higher chance of finding someone they like.

* Sports. The top 5 schools all have big time basketball and football programs.  Americans are obsessed with sports, which is why every single one of you should also play and at least follow sports.

* Public. All five schools are public schools.  We are in a period where it’s all about the middle class and not standing out.  Anything private, that costs more than the average annual income of an American isn’t going to fly.

* Competition. It’s much easier getting into these top 5 schools with an average acceptance rate of ~50% vs. 15% for the traditionally accepted top schools.  As a result, there’s a less “the world owes me” type attitude as students are more humble and eager to please their perspective employers.

* Representation. Being a recruiter isn’t exactly the hardest job in the world to land.  As a result, there is a high likelihood that most of the recruiters come from the very schools they have voted to the top!  We all want to take care of our own, and recruiters are no different.

CONCLUSION

Surveys are great because they can be manipulated to suit the surveyor’s beliefs.  Everybody looks out for their own, and the Wall Street Journal is no different.  Look into the management of the WSJ and I’m sure you’ll find one of them who is an alumni of their Top 5. The top schools in the nation really are party schools.

Penn State, Texas A&M, University of Illinois, Purdue, and Arizona State University are all fine schools.  They just aren’t the top schools the WSJ believes them to be, otherwise they’d have the most Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, Nobel Laureates, endowments, and so forth. 

Frankly, the WSJ might as well rank colleges by their proximity to the Pacific Ocean!  Now that would be a great survey! Did you go to one of the top schools in the nation?

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Refinance Your Student Loans

Refinance your student loans today. Check out Credible, a student loan marketplace that has qualified lenders competing for your business. Credible provides real rates for you to compare so you can lower your interest rate and save. Getting a quote is easy and free. Take advantage of our low interest rate environment today! The top schools in the nation tend to be very expensive.

Related posts:

Should I Go To Public Or Private University?

How To Get Into An Elite Preschool Or Private Grade School

Student Loans For College Are An Inevitability

Unfun Times At The DMV: Things To Bring And Do Before Arriving In Hell!

Updated: by 66 Comments

DMV HellThere might be a new way to wean car addicts off their car buying behavior.  That way is to simply have them experience a day at the DMV.  Recently, I had the pleasure to go to the DMV and re-register my car because I never got the tags in the mail.  Apparently State documents cannot be forwarded to a new address.  Hence, if you ever move residences or offices, make sure that you contact the DMV and other state departments immediately to notify your change of address!

I only drive on weekends now since I take the bus to work (ladies love bus riders).  I drive so little that I had no idea the tags never came for 3 months!  Of course, the one day I do drive to work due to a dental appointment, a cop pulls me over for a “fix-it” ticket.  “You know why I stopped you right?” Mr. Officer asks.

“Actually, I have no idea Officer,” I sincerely replied back.  He gave me a ticket for expired tags and told me that if I went to the DMV and got new tags within 30 days, I wouldn’t have to pay the $276 fine, but only $25.

OFF TO DISNEY WORLD I GO

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Fixing Our Absent-Minded And Forgetful Selves

Updated: by 31 Comments

Fixing Our Absent-Minded And Forgetful Selves

Have you ever had a period of time where all you did was lose and forget everything? Being absent-minded is tough. 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!



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Where Are My Credit Card Rights?

Updated: by 25 Comments

Credit card rights are important. Sometimes, issues happen with your credit card and you need to know your credit card rights to solve a problem.

I’ve had my 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. But one day, I get a letter from the bank 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. What are my credit card rights?

Related: Do You Have Spending Guilt Or Frugality Disease?

Their Letter To Me

“Dear Sam,

We are pleased to inform you that we have changed your Home Rebate Platinum Select Card account to a Frequent Flier Card 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.These don’t sound like good credit card rights.

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 how to get rewards 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.

Related: Credit Card Usage Is On Fire Again

Time Is Money

The unilateral decision by my bank is very unsettling. I feel like I don’t have any credit card rights.

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.

Make sure you sign up with an excellent rewards credit card that provides you great credit card rights.

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Planning for retirement when paying for private grade school
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State Budget Problems Are Going To Screw Us All

Updated: by 36 Comments

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. Talk about some serious state budget problems.

* 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. 

No Pleasant Solution To State Budget Problems

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 budget problems 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.

Further Reading

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

2011 Income Tax Rates: Raise Taxes On Millionaires Not Us

Updated: by 48 Comments

Here’s a look at the 2011 income tax rats when Obama was President.

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



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My Fear And My Guilt Drives Me To Succeed

Updated: by 45 Comments

Fear and guilt are powerful emotions to help you succeed. In fact, I think is the #1 ingredient that has enabled me to achieve financial independence at 34 in 2012.

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 WITH FEAR AND GUILT

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

1,000 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.  Finally, 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?

Does My Vote Matter? The Electoral College Is Not A Good System

Updated: by 45 Comments

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.

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Musings Of A Newly 30 Year Old Woman

Updated: by 16 Comments

 The following is a guest post by a regular reader who is a 30 year old woman.  She is thinking about kids and growing old. Here are her musings.

So often we let society overly influence how we feel and act. I could go on for hours about topics like body image, nutrition, and politics but for now let’s just touch on age and children.

Maybe I’m on my own in this, but it annoys me that society teaches us that couples should raise a family once they’re married. While I have no ill feelings towards you wonderful parents out there, it frustrates me that I still find myself doubting my lack of interest in having kids because it’s abnormal, against the grain.

Here are my thoughts as a 30 year old woman.

30 Year Old Woman Asks: Kids Or No?

As a thirty year old woman, I think more about kids.

However, more couples are choosing not to have children though and I commend them for knowing what’s best for them and not succumbing to the wishes of their parents, friends, siblings, in-laws, second cousins, and everyone else that undoubtedly approached them countless times with: “When are you having kids”, “You’ll love having a family,” “Your life will be more complete with children”, “You really should start a family now before it’s too late”, “You’ll regret it later if you don’t….” etc etc. Admit it – it’s still a bit odd for a happily married couple not to want children.

If you find yourself struggling with this weighty decision, don’t feel ashamed if you aren’t jumping for joy at the thought of having kids. Instead you should embrace your ambivalence! I think many people underestimate the option to say “no”, and often each spouse doesn’t equally evaluate the lifestyle and financial impacts of this huge decision. Deciding to wait or not to have kids doesn’t mean you’re cold, heartless, or a kid-hater. Sure people may question your decision but they wouldn’t be the ones raising your kids anyway, so who cares what they say.

If you worry about if you will regret it later, there are always other options like adoption, foster care, mentoring nephews/nieces, volunteering with kids, or even just getting a pet to care for. I’d strongly advise against letting fate decide. If you’re not using protection you’d better be 100% ready to have kids! I know many couples that got pregnant on the first try.

THE HILL IS JUST A LAUNCH PAD FOR NEW THINGS

As a thirty year old woman, I turned to my mother for her advice.

“I never worried about turning older” she said with a straight face. “The only birthday I really remember impacting me was when I turned 60, and that was just because I’d been looking forward to it for so long so I could start getting the senior discount when I go to the movies!” How adorable is that?

My mother’s easy going attitude and positive outlook has been a great anchor in my life and I hope to be as happy as she is when I reach 60! It’s still scary thinking about aging, but I’m determined not to let a number define my level of happiness. Instead of fearing getting older, I want to look forward to being a little old lady with lots of wrinkles from all the smiling and giggling I’ll be doing

I’d really like to slap the person that came up with the phrase “over the hill”. Sure we can’t stop the aging process but why do we have to dread that when we reach middle age, it’s only downhill from there? Shouldn’t we strive to die at our happiest and at the peak of our lives?

With an over the hill mentality, it’s no wonder people have mid life crises thinking that things are just going to get worse as each day, month, and year passes. Being a 30 year old woman is great!

AND SO WE CONTINUE

Our thoughts and feelings are more powerful than we give credit and I believe they can influence us physically too. 

If you want to have children, go for it, but don’t judge others for not wanting the same things you do.  If you believe you are young, you are!  Start thinking positively, avoid stress and pessimistic people, and you’ll see the world of difference.

Being a 30 year old woman is wonderful. Age is just a state of mind.

Update September 1, 2020: The guest poster is now 40 years old. She has two wonderful kids, a loving husband, and a beautiful home.

Carpe Diem!

Regards,

Never To Wonder

Related: What Is The Best Age To Have Kids?

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