Rule Your Wallet Blog

Too much customer service can quickly turn into a negative for a company. Here are two examples from the same company. I read Andrea’s excellent post Is Customer Service Still a Thing? WHERE IS IT? and I thought about a company that thinks it providing good customer service. This company is smothering me in company service to the point of borderline harassment.

Stop Calling Me Please

There is a company that calls me so often, I have had to change the contact information in my phone to “Spam.” (Quick background: This company has service technicians that make repairs and maintain industrial equipment) They call every week asking me if everything is going well with our equipment. Do we need this or that done?

I understand that they are trying to stay in contact with me so I don’t forget about them, but I really don’t have the time or patience to answer your questions about my equipment. I will call you when I need your services. Continue Reading

Life insurance is a way to help keep your family’s finances under control and give you some piece of mind. The most common source of financial trouble is some type of trauma in your life and there is no worse trauma than losing your spouse. Personal finance is not the first thing you think of when a tragedy happens, so it is best to be prepared ahead of time.

Why You Need Life Insurance Continue Reading

Quit Smoking Announcement

Have you tried every quit smoking tip out there? I have tried many of them, and none of them worked for me. That doesn’t mean they will not work for you. Here is my plan for quitting smoking based on what I have experienced in the past.

Just to put it out there. I am going to quit smoking tomorrow (8-8-12 for those of you that subscribe by email).

Since this is a personal finance blog, I have one thing to say to other personal finance bloggers. As a smoker, I have always found the tip “quit smoking to save money” extremely annoying. I also find anyone who tries to make quitting smoking sound easy annoying. I understand you are trying to help, but it isn’t helping. I am fully aware that smoking is bad for your health and expensive.

Helping Someone Quit Continue Reading

I had four cards with balances under $500, one with a $3000 balance and the highest interest rate, and another card with around $1500 no interest until 9 months later. After setting up my budget (and taking all of my credit cards out of my wallet so I would not use them), I decided that I could pay an extra $350 a month towards the credit card bills (All the minimum payments had already been accounted for in my budget).

The first thing I did was plan out the payment of the NO interest credit card. I set the balance as being paid off a full month before the no interest period ended. For some reason it appealed to me not paying that company any interest even though I would have paid less interest in the long run had I paid this one last. So, to make it simple I put 1-9 into a spreadsheet column representing the months. Then I put $0  next to the 8 and then $350 next to the seven, $700 next to the six…etc until I hit $1500.  On month 4 the total was $1400. Therefore, for months 1 and 2 I could put the $350 a month to any other debts and I had an additional $250 on month 3 because I had to pay $100 to the no interest card that month.

I was able to pay off three of the four smaller cards in those first few months before tackling the no interest card. I preferred this method not only because of the psychological benefits, but I also had three less bills to worry about paying. After the no interest card was paid off, the final small balance card was paid off the next month and I was down to one credit card payment. After that, I paid off the $3000 balance credit card.

To me the stress level decreased the fewer bills I had to worry about.  That is the main reason I choose this method instead of paying off the highest interest rate cards first as many suggest. If I had it all to do over again, I would not have run up any credit card debt to begin with.  Now, I only use my credit card to make online transaction for security purposes and I pay them off as soon as I receive whatever it was I ordered and approve of the product condition.

I know many people do not use cash anymore, but I believe using cash keeps you in touch with your finances better because you can see how much money you have left for the month.

I do not spend $1 bills. Every day when I get home I put all $1 bills in my wallet into a safe place. I suggest bundling your bills in some fashion in increments of 10′s or 20′s. Every so often, put them in your savings account, Roth IRA, or the kids 529 Plan.

I do not put mine into any savings plans. My dollar savings plan money is used to buy Christmas presents every year. This levels out my budget at the end of the year and helps me avoid using credit to buy presents.

I save $30 to $40 every month using this method.  My wife refers to the money I save this way as my “stripper stash.”