Ried Rants

You know that family is supposed to be there for you to support your and help you feel better when you are down. Sometimes they fall so incredibly short of that. Making you feel even worse than you did before you contacted them to get some moral support or advice.

Why does this happen?  Is it in the bylaws of the blood relationship of all families. Does it say to verbally beat down your relatives when they are already down?  Can it be that we all get so sucked in to our own mire that we can do nothing else but to be the naysayer and verbalize the worst possible case scenario?

Why can’t we just listen and nod, support and console? Oh maybe that is because we have to pay someone with a therapy degree to listen to us and do nothing more that provide an expensive sounding board for us to solve our own problems and be there for ourselves in time of crisis.

I have found in my many years of experience that grocery shopping can be quite annoying and difficult. It requires careful execution in order to get in and out quickly and without mishap.

I bet the worst day to shop is Saturday. Because most folks are off from work and want to run their errands. Now that by itself is a big variable on if you can actually survive the grocery getting. Couple that with the store stocking products on a day where carts are busting through the isles in a hurry or even worse…patrons who are at the store and think shopping for food is an all day project.

In a perfect world grocery stores are big and roomy and are free from displays cluttering the thoroughfare. Imagine if you will all the drivers out there that cut in front of you, don’t signal, go too slow, go too fast, stop short or the like. Well now they are in the store armed with a cart ready to shop and willing to take no prisoners.

Okay, I know its tuff out there. In fact it is so tuff that I have heard of jobs posted on the Internet on craigslist.org are getting 400 resumes (for a part time file clerk position). Now what I am realizing is the food chain of work has been off kilter for some time. I know this because I have also heard of folks who hold MBA’s taking jobs at 27K per year.

As a result a person who would normally have that 27K job has now been displaced. That person may believe or be so desperate that will take a job that pays 15K. Which intern displaces the worker who is accustomed to getting 15K. That 15K person is now having to take welfare, unemployment, odd jobs, etc.

This current state of affairs seems to have bred a new species of employer and recruiter. This new breed believes that they need a candidate that has about ten times the education, experience and knowledge than what is actually required for the position.

In my daily Internet job post hunt I actually found a post on Career Builder for a Executive Assistant. Now I know that I am casting aspersions on a job title similar to the one I am currently searching for (Legal Assistant). But let’s face it this job title is a euphemism for “secretary.” We have so many politically correct (“PC”) terms for things these days its crazy to me. But that is another rant for another time.

This job post was for an executive assistant. A job that pays anywhere from 27-45K. Salary.com states that it pays $36,000 to $58,000.  This listing stated that the candidate needed a graduate degree.

Now I am a bit backwards when it comes to higher degrees. I am often unsure of how degrees are referred to. In my head I am thinking a graduate degree is a Masters degree, six years of higher education. I hefty tuition most likely in the high double digits or maybe even six figures.

So I look it up and sure enough degrees ascend in two year increments after high school starting at Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s then PhDs.

This employer wants a person who has an incredible amount of education and get paid less annually than their education cost. Can you say PSYCHO?

There is a little known clause of a contract that you may sign with your Credit Union.  It is a sneaky provision that most people don’t understand and have no idea that they have agreed to.  It is called cross collateralization clause and it is on your loan agreement executed through you credit union. 

As you may know many people do not read or care to read the fine print in an agreement and that they sign.  Even if you do happen to read the fine print it is rare that the language in the document or agreement is understandable by a lay person.

The most common scenario of cross collateralization (“CC”) is when you take out a loan to purchase a vehicle.  The CC provision will be automatically added to the auto loan paperwork.  And it basically states that you agree that any unsecured debt (credit cards) that you hold with that same credit union are attached to the new auto loan. 

Meaning, that if you have a $20,000 car loan and $10,000 in credit card debt that once your car loan is paid off you will not gain title to the vehicle until ALL of the $10,000/debt on your revolving account is paid in full.  Even if you have no credit cards with that credit union open at the time you execute the auto loan they will attach any credit card you get from that credit union to the auto loan in the future.

This also causes a difficult situation, in light of the present economy, because many people are filing for bankruptcy protection.  You see the CC clause effectively makes credit card debt held at the same credit union non dischargeable i.e. you will have to pay the credit card AND the auto loan if you plan on keeping the auto.  This clause is designed so that credit unions have less of a chance to lose money that is lent under a revolving credit agreement.

The only way that you can get around this trickery is to have owned the auto for at least 910 days with that lender (in Florida) if you are filing for bankruptcy protection. 

Your best bet is to keep your loan account(s) separate from your deposit account(s) to protect your money from the CC clause. 

Even if you use a non credit union financial institution keep your money separate.  Because of another little known clause that allows the mortgage lender the right to sweep (take all your money from savings and checking) to pay any and all mortgage amounts that are in arrears there are held at that same institution.

In a nutshell:

-  if your lender holds your mortgage and you have checking and/or savings accounts at the same place they can take your money to pay the mortgage you promised you would pay.

-  if your credit union holds your auto loan and you have credit card(s) with them you have secured the credit cards with the auto and the auto will not be yours until you pay off both.

It is no small wonder why people did not keep their money in the bank during hard times. 

You know I have done a lot of jobs in my life to get by and pay my bills. On more than one occasion I have worked for tips. It seems to be an alien concept to some folks. Only because at a job where the server gets $4.23 per hour (current rate in Tampa, FL) you get patrons coming in get food or alcohol and leave nothing or pittance for the service they receive.

I posted something up on FaceBook about it recently and got a weird comment about how that no one should be tipped as wages and thinks it is a rip off. Cha! And they posted two paragraphs about how tipping is expected yada, yada, yada.

TIPS stands for “to insure prompt service.” So yeah we have slackers, as in any job/career/profession that make it bad for others. But the thing is verbal tips fall short of paying the bills.

A verbal tip is when you’ve got a guest telling you how great you are and how they are going to take good care of you (alluding to a great tip). They say this or something similar throughout the time you are helping them. Then POW they leave you something ridiculous like 10% of the bill. It is my experience that the big mouths are the ones that are full of baloney.

I had a guy sit in VIP, eventually order a bottle of Opus One Cabernet and drip with compliments telling me what I great job I was doing and how he was “going to take care of me.” The girl who was sitting with him kept telling me how she would make sure he gave me a big tip.

When it came time to tip he left me $40 and asked if that was okay. Now you might be thinking to yourself that is a great tip. Well it would have been if that check were smaller. His check was $375. So I told him that forty dollars was about 10% of his bill. He retorted with “it is an expensive bottle of wine.” At this point I am thinking to myself…Yeah ya putz that is why I was happy you bought it.

Twenty percent of whatever I made in tips as a cocktail server went to the bartender. Because the bartender is working for the servers getting them drinks.

You might be thinking to yourself that bottle service takes no time. The thing is a good server will check often without being intrusive. Clean and clear the table of garbage, bring fresh glasses, etc., change napkins bring some light conversation and interaction and knowing how much contact to have.

Food waiting sucks because there is way too much side work and forget carrying the big trays for me. The only way it makes sense to food wait is at a high end spot where the average ticket is $100 per person.

In my experience I have found that most people will tip 20% of the bill. You have those that have no clue and leave nothing and the REALLY generous guests who leave you 30% or more. But at the end of the day it still comes out to 20-30 percent of your sales.

Bottom line: tip at least 15% to your server, event if the food sucks. Remember you are rewarding the service.

Twenty percent is better and easier to calculate. Basic math is a concept that most adults can grasp. All you have to do is figure out ten percent of the bill before tax and double it. Some folks just double the tax here in Florida since that works out to be 14%.

If you want to be treated well, tip well. You will get better service and more attention. Or if you want to be left alone you can get that too with a good tip and a smart server.

Waitstaff are people who are in school or need a flexible schedule and typically need a good source of money in a short period of time.  So understand that this is how they pay their bills and be nice.

When shopping for sushi and junk food I had an epiphany. I now have some hard proof on why our society is under nourished and obese.

While in the checkout lane I commented to the checkout girl if she could see the motivation for my visit that day. She looked puzzled. I told her that I wanted junk food and again I got the head tilt from her as it she was imitating a deer in the headlights.

Note that the seven or so items consisted of sushi for lunch, lavish crackers, sour patch gummy bears, chocolate covered pretzels, fried veggie chips and gluten free ginger snap cookies.

She then proceeded to tell me that everything I had was “healthy” except for the gummy bears. I pointed to the chocolate covered pretzels and she retorted “Its dark chocolate which is good for you.” My only reply was “they are chocolate” and I left it at that.

So here we are in a day and age where the majority of the population is slightly overweight to obese and morbidly obese. It is no wonder that America is fat with that kind of justification on the crap that we eat everyday.