By Rob Severson on July 9, 2010
Maybe we really do need a nanny!
The banking overdraft fee laws are really interesting to me for several reasons.
First, the idea that banks are wrong to charge customers for the privilege of borrowing money without asking is a puzzling one. That is what overdrafts are; borrowing money without asking for permission. I admit some bias because I worked for a bank for a while. One of my daily tasks was to call customers who were overdrawn to rectify the situation, either with a quick cash deposit or bouncing the check if I didn’t think it would be covered. Most of the time we honored the checks because we talked with the customer and trusted they would cover it. We only returned checks if we thought they would not be covered. Overdraft fees were charged to the customers to support the extra work with their account (my time for example) plus as an accommodation fee for their “demanded” borrowing. Most customers understood that that were in the wrong and sharpened their accounting to avoid future overdrafts and costs. The ones who didn’t eventually had their accounts closed by the bank.
Some would call these fees punitive and that may be accurate. A better term would be “tuition” for learning how to manage one’s cash. I have had a few overdrafts in my life and caught on very quickly when I paid that tuition and am better off for the education. In my case, I admit to faulty record keeping!
Now we have a law that banks cannot charge overdraft fees unless the customer opts in to the concept of paying overdraft fees. This is kind of like paying a fee for getting a loan without asking the lender which I think many will eventually do in spite of the fees. If they don’t, there will be consequences.
Picture a person eating in a restaurant and planning to pay the bill with a debit card. If they have not opted in, when they present their card and there is no cash in their account they have a problem. The restaurant may inherit the problem. That is just one of many things that can and will happen with this new law.
Sure, it is very pricy to pay a $35 overdraft charge for a $2.00 cup of coffee at the coffee shop. I understand that. It is more expensive to pay with a check that bounces and the coffee shop also charges $20 for the check too, but that is what may happen.
We can criticize banks all we want, but deep down inside I think we would all agree that it is our job to keep track of our money. I think we would also agree that we would never want anyone to borrow money from us without asking. Now we have a law to protect us from our own stupidity or errors and many think this is a good thing. Wouldn’t it be better if we learned how to keep track of our money?
Posted in General | Tagged bank overdraft fees, banking, financial prosperity, loans, prosperity, social injustice |
By Rob Severson on June 15, 2010
Her name was Rena Ingersoll. She was the librarian and senior English teacher in my high school; all seniors took her class.
I can’t remember how big she was, it didn’t make any difference. She was tough! She had a shrill voice that would pierce the building when she was angry. I saw and heard her chew out some very big, “tough” guys, take them by the ear to the principal’s office, and then left them feeling so low they could sit on a tissue paper and dangle their feet! The principal had no more chewing to do. If she chewed out someone next to us, that was close enough and we learned to behave ourselves just to avoid her. I was notorious for being disruptive, but even I controlled my self when I was in her class or her library. I would like to say I respected her which I did, but admittedly there was some fear involved also.
In her class she taught us to read classic literature as well as write about it and write creatively on other things. Most of us didn’t care too much about Shakespeare or the other guys, but I think we were all awed by her love for literature and writing and how she made it come alive.
She was a taskmaster and motivated us all to do our best, whatever that would be. When we did poorly we heard about it by notes on the papers we submitted, or comments on tests that we did poorly in. But when we did something good she also praised our efforts and success.
One of my prouder moments in high school was when she read an essay I had written for an assignment in satire. She really enjoyed mine so read it to the whole class while leading the laughter from what I wrote. Coming from her that was a great compliment as well as what she wrote on my paper: “Robbie, you like to write don’t you? Keep writing” With that I was motivated to do more. I would bet that others in my class were also encouraged by her when they did something well too, that was her way and it meant a lot coming from a real critic.
Then I went to college. My writing wasn’t well received there. I know why, it was because I didn’t read the books that I was supposed to write about. I didn’t have time to read, too much cards to play and horsing around to do. I almost failed English, my writing was severely criticized and I decided not to write ever again unless I had to.
After college in one of my accounting jobs I was one of the guys who proofread audit reports before they were sent to the clients, a boring and mundane job that we did only when there were no other things we could do for billable time. One day my supervisor approached me and told me that the partners wanted me to proofread all the reports when I was in the office. I asked him why I was being punished and he said it was not punishment, I was the only one getting the reports right. So, I did remember some stuff I learned from Ingersoll! One of the typists even asked me if I was an English major!!
Then on to banking where I wrote a lot of memos for various purposes. Very often, I was complimented on my writing skills and the clarity of my expression of the situation in the memo. I began to get confidence again.
Last year I wrote and published a book. It was a big adventure for me and I learned a lot about it in the process and since it was my story, I had no need to prove my statements! Many readers from my home town sent me comments about the book and many recalled Ingersoll’s class and how much they learned from her. Many commented: “Ingersoll would be so proud of you! I think she would have been proud, even with the imperfections in it! She should have been, she was my inspiration to write. She is no longer with us, but if she had seen my book I would bet she would have written me a note saying: “Robbie you still like to write, keep it up!”
Now my class of 1965 is gathering for our 45 year class reunion and exchanging emails anticipating the event. It is interesting that Ingersoll’s name has come up the most frequently in messages; some expressing the fear they had, but mostly the respect they had for her.
I hope every student in high school has a teacher like her some day. One who is tough, but encouraging; one who loves her venue and shows it; and one who the students will know she really cares about them.
Bless her memory
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, careers, life priorities, relationships, success |
By Rob Severson on May 22, 2010
Jeff Peltier is a guy I met via Linkedin. He invited me to be a guest on his show this week to share my faith and to talk about my book. Jeff is a very interesting man with a great consulting business in addition to his radio show.
Check it out here, you may fast forward on some if you like.
Posted in General | Tagged alcohol, attitude, blog radio, business finance, careers, faith, financial prosperity, God at work, life priorities, prosperity, relationships, success, work life faith |
By Rob Severson on May 19, 2010
A baffling Mortgage loan situation
Today a business client told me this story about his mortgage loan. I will make up some numbers to illustrate the situation.
He has a mortgage of $200,000 on a home that is valued at $175,000. His payments are current with on the mortgage. He wants to sell the home in order to move to a different location closer to schools and work. He has the house on the market but will not get enough to payoff the mortgage so he contacted Wells Fargo who holds the mortgage.
They told him he has two options, either pay off the mortgage in full or do a short sale and they will take a discount for the $25,000. He really wants to pay off the whole liability but cannot come up with the shortfall so asked if he could sign a note for the difference and pay it off over time which he can do given his income. He was told they would not do that so I called WFC myself and got confirmation of that.
My concern is that of a shareholder of WFC. I have been in corporate finance for many years but have not been involved in personal loans much at all. It appears to me that if WFC is going to accept a short payment they will charge of the shortfall and forget it. They told me they would not take any notes from anyone for the shortfall because if the customer filed bankruptcy they would not get the money. My argument was, what difference does it make? Would you rather charge off the difference than take a chance on a recovery over time? The latter makes a lot of sense to me as the best solution to this problem. WFC has a lot of these problems, why wouldn’t they just charge off the shortfall, take a note for it and when any payments come in simply apply them to their reserves? Isn’t this a no brainer?
Posted in General | Tagged business finance, financial prosperity, life priorities, short sales, Wells Fargo mortgages |
By Rob Severson on May 16, 2010
I think a lot. Sometimes I come up with good ideas, other times they fail me, but I keep on and write about some of them.
Lately I have been interested in the pursuit of happiness as allowed in the Declaration of Independence. I really like that concept and also believe that it is a pursuit, not an endpoint. So I conclude that we need to work at it.
Lately I have read about many people being dissatisfied with their jobs. It seems rather strange to me given the high unemployment rate that we have in the country as well as the notion that so many are unhappy. I have been happy in almost every job I have had, except one. I was laid off in my first job for lack of business and was picked to go in the second round for lack of skills! I eventually got a job in banking, a field that I never had any interest in at all, but I had a young family to support so gladly took it. I was determined to never get laid off again so changed my attitude from “what can my employer teach me?” to what can I do for my employer that will make the bank more successful. I think that attitude is the basis for the ensuing success I have had since then.
So, if you don’t like your job or employer I have some concepts for you to consider in evaluating your position. I am not picking on anyone with these questions, I just have come to believe that some of the problem is our own attitudes.
Here are some things you may wish to consider.
Maybe:
- Your job isn’t about your self fulfillment
- It is about serving someone else
- It is about serving your customer
- It isn’t your employer’s job to keep you happy
- It is about making a living
- There are jobs out there that will provide you means to make a living if you don’t just focus on what you want to do
- You just don’t like the idea of work
- One of the millions of out of work people out there would love to trade places with you
- Your boss isn’t the jerk you think
- You would be happier if someone took care of you
As I said, please don’t take any offense to any of these ideas. They are intended to just make you think.
Maybe you would like your job more if you approached it differently?
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, careers, financial prosperity, job dissatisfaction, jobs, life priorities, prosperity, success |
By Rob Severson on May 15, 2010
Now don’t exit right away, I am not going to preach! But I do want to share an interesting story about survival and careers from the Bible. I believe it is true and that God orchestrated it, but will tell the story in secular terms just because it is fascinating. And, you may find that the Bible does have some lessons for us.
Genesis recounts the story of Jochebed, who was Moses mom. Jochebed was a Hebrew woman who had a child named Moses. At the time of his birth the Hebrews were enslaved to the Egyptians and were very abused by them. Because the Hebrews were multiplying the Pharaoh became concerned about an insurrection by the Hebrews, so he ordered that the first born sons be killed by throwing them in to the Nile River. Many were killed in this process, but Jochebed hid Moses and concentrated on finding a way to let him survive, rather than be another victim. She put him into a basket and sent him down a stream to where some Egyptian women were bathing and would discover him. They did and instantly fell in love with the baby and kept him for their own. They realized that they needed to nurse him and Moses sister, who had been watching them., came forward and volunteered her mother to take care of the baby. They took her in and Jochebed nursed her own child for them.
Moses was raised as a privileged Egyptian and in a worldly sense had it made. One day he discovered his true heritage and began defending his people who were being beaten and treated poorly by the Egyptians, and was forced to flee Egypt for his personal insurrection. In a few years he returned to Egypt commissioned by God to lead his people out of captivity which he successfully did. There is much more to this account in Exodus that is equally fascinating.
But, we can learn quite a bit about just this snippet from the Bible. Even in just a secular sense.
Jochebed was a survivor! While her friends were probably wallowing in pain and tears about losing their babies Jochebed was keen on Moses’ survival and came up with a creative plan to make it happen. She had knowledge of women and their love for babies so let the Egyptian women “discover” Moses and fall in love with him. She knew Moses would require nursing so sent her daughter to volunteer her nursing services to them for Moses care. I don’t know if she was paid, but probably got some food for her service so in actuality got a job out of taking care of her own child! How creative is that? Focusing a personal survival solution saved her child rather than focusing on her victim situation which certainly was justifiable.
One last brief lesson from this would be why did God appoint Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt? Or, if you don’t believe this, then I ask how did he prepare for doing this?
He had no experience as a leader and had only recently discovered his heritage. He had been on the wrong side of the issue for a long time and would have to earn his trust from the Hebrews. He did it by proving his intent through his actions in the process of negotiating with Pharaoh.
His biggest asset for the job was his heritage. He may have been the only Hebrew who could walk into the palace and get an audience with Pharaoh. He probably had relationships with many people in the palace who allowed him to come in and get to see Pharaoh directly. He used his contacts well and achieved his mission by getting in the door.
Survival lessons from this story:
- Don’t wallow in self pity, be creative and find a solution
- Jochebed was unselfish and gave up her son so he may have a chance to live
- Sometimes it is up to us to personally assure our survival
- It pays to understand people; like Jochebed did when sending Moses to baby loving women
- Rather than give up, take a thought our risk and try it
- Use your contacts like Moses did in his mission
- Moses used his assets to help other people, not himself and became successful by being others’ centered
Survival may be very different in today’s complex world, but I think the fundamentals are the same. We need to learn them and apply them!
Don’t think you can do it? Maybe you need God too!
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, careers, creativity, jobs, life priorities, moses, relationships, success, survival |
By Rob Severson on May 10, 2010
I just completed a 1 hour interview with Felice Gerwitz, Media Angels, on her blog talk radio program. I had never done something like this before but it was a great experience for me. If you like, check it out here:
Continue reading “My blog talk radio interview with with Felice Gerwitz, author and book coach”
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, authors, books, business finance, careers, christian books, financial prosperity, jobs, success |
By Rob Severson on May 7, 2010
I have worked with 100′s of small businesses and have seen a few things that cause financial problems for them. I think they are very similar to individuals who have problems.
First, some businesses take much more personal compensation than the business can support. Sometime they do this to avoid corporate income taxes but do not tuck it away for liquidity when they need it. Individuals are doing something similar if they spend too much of their money on unnecessary things that are financed by some cash but more debt.
Second, some businesses have too many family members on the payroll and when times get tough have difficulty reacting. Individuals have this problem by spending more than they can afford to give their children all the things they want, rather than they can afford. “But is for the children”
Businesses may buy real estate above their needs in the interest of building equity for retirement rather than considering the costs for the business and the risks of long term debt. Individuals sometimes stretch for a house loan as they believe their income will go up and they can grow into a new mortgage.
Business sometimes are lax on their accounting procedures and financial reporting. They may ignore that information until it is too late. Individuals may have no clue to their financial position at all.
Businesses may borrow as much as they can by leveraging every asset they have to do so. Some make it doing this, but only if they are very profitable and reduce the debt over time. Banks don’t like permanent working capital loans. Individuals do it by over extending credit cards to the point where they are perpetual.
Business may ignore what is happening to demand for their product and continue to believe they can sell what they have. Individuals may not see changes in the market for their skills and do not invest in learning others before it is too late.
Businesses may become complacent with a high concentration with one customer. When that customer goes away, they scramble to replace it. Individuals do the same by trusting that their employer will always have a place for them and don’t watch what is going on at work.
Many of these issues are considered warning flags by credit people in banking. When they occur they watch their loans more closely until the business proves they can make their decisions work. These are not just flags for bankers, businesses and individuals should also understand the risk of what they are doing in their decision making.
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, business finance, careers, financial prosperity, life priorities, prosperity, success |
By Rob Severson on May 7, 2010
Are you interested in writing and publishing? You are invited to join me, Felice Gerwitz, author of “Information in a Nutshell: Writing and Publishing,” along with my guests as we explore the exciting world of becoming a published author. This broadcast airs every Monday afternoon at 3:30 ET. I will challenge you with information and inspiration as you work closer to obtaining your dream….that of becoming a published author.
I connected with Felice on Linkedin and she has been a great contact and friend for me. I have used her consulting services a bit and she helped a lot as she knows what she is doing in the publishing field. She also is a fun person to work with I value our internet friendship very much. She invited me to be on her radio show this Monday to talk with her about my book adventure. Here is information from her site about Monday:
Rob Severson grew up in Harmony, Minnesota, and graduated from Luther College. An “average guy” and academic underachiever he decided to write a book that shares how he overcame obstacles to personal and professional success by adopting basic, proven principles. Learn how Rob took an idea and turned it into a book for his two daughters, that has impacted the lives of many people. Rob will share his adventure as a new author and the ups and downs of finding a niche market and selling books
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, blog radio, careers, financial prosperity, life priorities, prosperity, relationships, success |
By Rob Severson on May 5, 2010
I recently wrote on social injustice reflecting on what some churches promote. I believe their intentions are good, but question the result. I also received some comments that these churches think the government has to do the entitlement stuff because the people in their churches do not give enough money to do it.
If I were in a member of a church that is in to social justice, and re-distribution of wealth I could have several reactions. First, I would be convinced that the government has a all the responsibility for helping people and that it can and should be done by them. Second, I would believe that the taxes I pay are for this purpose and therefore I do not need to give much to my church. Lastly, I would be convinced that only the wealthy are responsible for helping people as they pay the most in taxes. I would also quickly buy in to the idea that only the wealthy are greedy and that I am not because I am not wealthy.
So, I would put $1 in the offering plate and feel good about it. Is that the desired result? Shouldn’t I be taught about greed also? “Feel good” ministries may bring in lots of people, but are they teaching people to be unselfish? Many think that is our main social problem today in Wall Street, big business, government and everywhere. I think the best place to teach these values is in church. Are they?
Posted in General | Tagged attitude, careers, church giving, financial prosperity, life priorities, prosperity, social injustice |
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