Financial topics

[Higgenbotham]

https://info.bankofamerica.com/preferre ... s/details/

The benefits of this program include:
Free safe deposit box, free checks (banking)
Up to 75% cash bonus on credit card cash back (credit card)
Up to 100 free trades per month in a brokerage account (brokerage)

All under one roof due to repeal of Glass-Steagall.

They don't do any of it well, but it is all passable. It's like the old Soviet system.

If the local credit union offers 0.30% on your checking instead of the 0.05% B of A offers they still can't compete in most cases, even though their service and operations are probably better.

[Higgenbotham]

I actually did the calculation a few days ago. Even if Bank of America does not honor their promise to pay for the $147 in fraudulent charges on my credit card, I am still better off staying with them. There is nowhere else I can take my business and do better due to the monopoly they have been granted, even minus the $147.

[Higgenbotham]

The key to understanding how to do business with Generation X is to understand that there is no limit to the damage they are willing to do to their reputations or their livelihoods in order to be able to renege on a promise or violate a basic tenet of decency or decorum. Go into any negotiations with the equivalent of a hammer or a pair of pliers and be ready for a skull smashing or tooth pulling contest. Have the attitude that at the extreme they may be willing to fight you over a penny for 50 years and be prepared not to budge an inch. Read my summary of the negotiations with "Scottsdale" for the best example of how to do this:

Despite that, 7 days after I made the initial call there was no bonus added to the account. In the meantime, I had called a competitor, made another deal and initiated an account transfer. Now it was going down to the wire. "Scottsdale" had until 10:30 am on a certain day to get the bonus in or the account would be transferred. I told them I would not rescind the transfer unless there was "cash on the barrelhead" so to speak.

They were unable to produce the cash on time and lost the account.

[Higgenbotham]

You may ask what I gained from adopting a hardline approach with "Scottsdale" besides the alternative deal at the competitor. I also had a small account with "Scottsdale" that I didn't initiate a transfer on. When they saw the big account was going, they put hundreds of free commissions in the small account, which I didn't even ask for, to prevent that one from being transferred too. It was only when they saw the instruments of torture and the blood on the floor that they began to undertake reasonable and timely actions.

[John]

> The key to understanding how to do business with Generation X is
> to understand that there is no limit to the damage they are
> willing to do to their reputations or their livelihoods in order
> to be able to renege on a promise or violate a basic tenet of
> decency or decorum.

The following parable describes my personal experience:

Boomers have a culture where you can argue with each other with
vitriolic fervor and still be friends.

But if you argue with a Gen-Xer, then he smiles and doesn't say
anything. But as soon as you turn around, you're on the floor with
your blood spilling all over the place as the result of the big knife
that the Gen-Xer shoved into your back when your back was to him. If
you're still able to look around with your last dying breath, then you
can see that the Gen-Xer is still smiling.

[Higgenbotham]

Xers are barbarians. The only way to get a barbarian to act in a civilized manner is to make the barbarian understand that you are prepared to act in an extreme or uncivilized manner in order to control their barbarism. Once that is done, they will swing to the other extreme, as the dealings with "Scottsdale" illustrate, or when my Xer managers removed the uncivilized Gen X beast from my cubicle the very next morning after refusing to do so for weeks (as recounted earlier):

I said I would not be giving 2 weeks notice because they were placing me at risk by having a person 4 feet away from me who has over 40 previous addresses, over 40 previous phone numbers and a potential alias, all identifiable from google. I stated that my risk tolerance would not allow another 2 weeks.

Now the Xer managers took immediate action to get me to stay 2 weeks instead of 3 days. They moved her out of my cubicle the next morning, then mentioned twice that I could rescind my resignation. I stayed the 2 weeks and left.

Also, a nuance to understand here when dealing with X is not to rescind your resignation. The reason is if you do, then they will stab your back by finding a convenient (for them) and embarrassing (for you) way to fire you, as John's parable suggests.

[John]

Here's what I learned from CNBC today:

Traders are unhappy because volatility (the VIX) is so low. Traders
depend on volatility, with prices constantly going sharply up and
down, so that they can make money with timed trades. With the markets
so quiet and placid, traders are unable to make money.

Therefore, traders are hoping for a geopolitical crisis, like a North
Korea nuclear crisis, to increase volatility so that they can make
money.

[John]

> Also, a nuance to understand here when dealing with X is not to
> rescind your resignation. The reason is if you do, then they will
> stab your back by finding a convenient (for them) and embarrassing
> (for you) way to fire you, as John's parable suggests.

It's better to be fired, because then you can collect unemployment.

[Higgenbotham]

> Also, a nuance to understand here when dealing with X is not to
> rescind your resignation. The reason is if you do, then they will
> stab your back by finding a convenient (for them) and embarrassing
> (for you) way to fire you, as John's parable suggests.

It's better to be fired, because then you can collect unemployment.

In the workplace I was in, I got the impression that the managers were required to go down the path of firing people for misconduct so they didn't have to pay unemployment.

http://www.twc.state.tx.us/news/efte/ui ... ssues.html

That's why I think it took 4 months to get rid of the employees I referenced. It took them 7 months to get rid of my other Gen X cube mate because they ginned up a false misconduct charge when they couldn't get him for anything else (according to what he told me anyway).

My best guess with Mr Millennial is the official reason he was fired was because he repeatedly failed to follow management directives (in other words insubordination).

Texas law seems to favor the employer a lot.

[Higgenbotham]

Last night I mentioned that Gen X Debacles are a daily occurrence so in keeping with that, just for today, I will post the "Gen X Debacle of the Day".

This afternoon the phone rang. I picked it up and the automated recording said it was FedEx and they will be delivering a package tomorrow that requires a signature. I thought to myself what did I order? Since you are dealing with Gen X on a daily basis, it is important to think about 7 layers deep. It could be a fraudulent phone call, yet on the other hand it could be something you really ordered, but that Gen X did not tell you that they shipped. So you have to think really hard at all times because with Gen X running the show it is never straightforward.

So about 10 seconds into the call I remembered that I had ordered a computer online from Dell Refurbished but had not received email notification that they received the order or that it was shipped. Their website said they process the orders in batches so it might take up to 2 days to receive notification that the order has been processed. The order was placed 3 days ago. The website also said to check your spam folder in case the email was in there.

So I wrote down the FedEx tracking number and checked my credit card to see if Dell Refurbished charged it and they had! So at that point, I was 90% sure that the Easter Egg I was hunting really was the computer.

Then I called Dell Refurbished and quickly got a live person on the phone. I gave her the order number and she confirmed the computer had been shipped. I asked her why I didn't get an email confirmation and she said the email could be in my spam folder. I told her I had checked both my inbox and my spam folder and there was no email. She said that she didn't know, but that an email should have been sent.

I then noted that the site said my signature is required. I asked if it needs to be my signature or if someone else could sign for it. She said someone else can sign for it, even though the website says otherwise.

So there you have it, my "Gen X Debacle of the Day"!