For this Throwback Thursday I thought I’d pull an article that aired almost exactly on this same day, 5 years ago :) It’s a pretty fun/random one.
Let’s see if anyone was around back then and remembers this!
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My brother wrote up a pretty clever “life plan” for himself the other day (which is quite interesting in itself), and under his finances category, he jotted the following:
“Stop worrying about money – you’ll get it when you least expect it, and you’ll lose it when you least expect it.”
My brother, getting philosophical about money?! I couldn’t believe it! This is the same brother that needed to borrow money to help finance his condo, and who needed help erasing his debt – I love it! The teacher is now learning from the student :)
While I believe DOING something about it rather than leaving it up to the world is the ultimate way to go (The Secret, anyone?), I do think he’s on to something. At least in the general sense of not stressing yourself to death (say, after you’ve already put a game plan into action).
Get ready for word vomit:
Last Friday I opened up my mailbox, and there was a lovely card from mom in there. Now, usually she sends me stuff for holidays, birthdays, etc in the mail, but I couldn’t quite figure out what was coming up. I tear open the envelope, and out drops a check! WTF? She already gave me her wedding gift (for $1,000!) so I was confused.
As always, I wanted to read the card first before seeing how much was written on that bad boy. This is hard to do, mind you, but it’s always important to read it first ;)
It turns out it was a thank you note! A what? What have I done lately that didn’t require anything selfish? (Haha…) Wellllll, it turns out to be a thank you for helping her win a potential lawsuit! You see, my late grandpa had some pretty shoddy care over at a nursing home last year, and the facility didn’t seem to care. There was a lot of back and forth talk between my mom and the managers there, but ultimately they told her to just F off (they didn’t put it that way, but they might as well have!)
All my mom wanted was a sincere thank you, and half off one month’s rent there – about $1,200 I believe. I told her to basically say she’ll sue (in hopes they meet her request), but they just shrugged it off. My mom was pissed off, but wasn’t about to push harder as it was becoming too stressful. Well, I personally wasn’t too happy with that.
It just so happened that Mrs. Budgetsaresexy worked directly FOR a lawyer, particularly one who manages unlawful injury cases, so we had her run it by her boss to see what he thought. And what do ya know, he thought we *might* have something here! He promised to draft a letter (which Mrs. Budgetsaresexy actually did for him), and said that the nursing home’s legal representation could either throw it in the trash, OR they could rebuttle and try and settle this thing w/out going to court – something the letter mentioned, but something we def. weren’t gonna do.
Well, with everything in life, you never know unless you try right? And that we did. And a few months later, after a few back and forths and a LOT of heavy researching by the Mrs., the “case” settled! Would you like to know how much my Mom/Grandma got out of the whole thing? $75,000! Can you believe that? All my mother had wanted was that sincere apology with a measly $1k credit, and they snubbed her. But look who got it now b*tches! ;)
So yeah, it was a thank you for the Mrs. and I doing all of that for her ;) I kinda went overboard w/ this post a bit here (at least I warned you), but it does have some points!
- Ask for what you deserve. You may not always get it, but it sure doesn’t hurt trying. And you might even get surprised every now and then!
- Encourage your family members and friends. Even though your parents are your parents, they don’t know everything out there, and sometimes we can help teach THEM ;)
- “Stop worrying about money— you’ll get it when you least expect it, and you’ll lose it when you least expect it.” That check my mom sent us? It was for $500 smackers!!! Woohoo! FREEE Money! We, of course, tried to refuse it, but you know how moms are… so here we are, $500.00 richer and another mark down for growing a pair and speaking up.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be posting this before I get off on another tangent… Which is very bad considering I’m at work right now and couldn’t tell you a thing that’s been going on around me in the past 30 minutes. Yikes!
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It’s interesting to see that after 5 years I still blog pretty much the same way – with stories :) I’ll see ya back here tomorrow when I spill some of my current wins and losses going on in the money department this week… Surprises never stop coming in life, do they?
[Photo by Gamma Man]
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Wow, five years? The post sure hasn’t lost any of its initial freshness and punch :)
Totally dig your bros philosophy, when it comes down to it, $hit happens all the time and mostly when we least expect it. Reminds me of this reggae song line, “Don’t worry about a thing, coz every lil thing is gonna be alright” and its a darn good philosophy to live by!
You still need to be active doing things (learning, growing, working) and not doing stupid things (staying in debt, buying new cars, etc). If you just sit on the couch and complain, I doubt much money is coming your way, although you may continue to lose some.
Yup, for sure. The quote needs an asterisk next to it ;)
Stories are fun!
I can see you with Baby Money perched on your knee for story time:
J Money: Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf.
Baby Money: A wolf?
J Money: Yes son, a Credit Card Debt at 23% Interest Wolf.
Baby Money: I’m scared.
J Money: It’s okay. The Sexy Budget Dragon slays the the Credit Card Debt at 23% Interest Wolf.
Baby Money. Yeah. What’s sexy mean daddy?
J Money: Go ask your mother.
Haha… it really wouldn’t surprise me if “sexy” was the first word that comes out of his mouth!
Wow, that’s awesome! It just goes to show you that it rarely hurts to ask and look what came out of it. Glad to see they paid up and was used to encourage your family.
I always ask for more than what I expect in bad customer service situations in hopes that I end up where I want to be. Worst thing that happens is I don’t end up with anything. When it does pay off, it makes all those times of just asking worth it.
yeah, and plus it gives you wiggle room to negotiate and “meet in the middle” when necessary.
“The good you do today, will pay off someday.” – Me ;)
You can steal that quote now.
The Warrior
NetWorthWarrior.com
(I’m so putting that on Twitter)
Thats a lot of green backs for a little letter and one hour of advice. THat 75 K invested in a dividend stock is some serious change annually.
It’s amazing how far speaking up will take you.
We once complained about a bag of busted M&Ms via the hotline on the back and we received vouchers for $5 worth of free Mars Candy products.
OK, so it’s not 75K. But still! Candy, people!
Woahhhh I didn’t know those numbers even worked! Haha…. Good for you.
Cool story. It reminds me of the guy who has a goal of asking for something and getting rejected at least once every day. You have to think that by now he’s got no problem speaking up, and I’m sure his finances are a little better for it (I think a lot of the stuff he asks for is a free product/sample/whatever so that’s money savings right there!).
Oh yeah, just like entering giveaway contests every day – the odds get better with each one you do!
The lesson: don’t mess with the moms.
Thanks for sharing the story. It’s a good lesson in determination, as well as the importance of treating your clients right the first time.
Are you sure you didn’t just write this and say you did 5 years ago? Haha glad to know your writing style hasn’t changed!
Haha… I was actually impressed with myself on this one :) You should take a look at the ones before and after – Wayyyyyy different! I only had to clean up like 10 words w/ this one vs 30+ on others (one of the other reasons I chose this one for the day, haha…)
Let’s see how it looks in another 5, eh?
I’ve got the grammar and proofreading part covered. Not my spellchecker, but my husband:P When I first started writing he would read the posts sometime during the day and randomly tell me things that were misspelled or had the wrong grammar. Now I just lt him proofread and check the actual post before I publish!
Yes, that def. helps too :) But only if they’re “in the mood” to be all grammar-like at that very moment or else you’ll wait forever.
I’m glad your mom got a big fat paycheck!!! To think they could have avoided it with awesome customer service.
You’re brother really made an interesting quote there. And I can say that I totally agree with him on that.
I mean “YOUR” brother. Sorry, my bad. :(
Haha… no worries here, my friend. I’m not the grammar police :) If I were I’d be putting myself in jail every single day.
You definitely deserve whatever amount you received from your mom.