(B Rosen)
It’s an unnerving experience as an adult. You’re going along, being a good savvy consumer just like you always thought was the right way, only to discover in a flash that you’ve been doing it wrong all along. Has this happened to you recently?
Sound off in the comments.
Hat tips to Cockeyed, Lifehacker and Metafilter who started similar threads.
I didn’t know about cntrl+T. I always opened up another browser window.
D’oh.
my boss did this . annoying !
I followed my father’s example of trying to live within my means, then suddenly, he drops nearly $1 million on my brother to purchase property in Hawaii for my brother’s Japanese wife. He still thinks I am the unsuccessful son whenever I see my folks. I know I am still doing the right thing but it still grabs at my heart strings that they believe I am never going to amount to anything. C’est la vie.
The article is about mom’s favoritism, but I’m sure the pain is equally as painful as when dad does it. Sorry this happened to you.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37984149/ns/health-kids_and_parenting
Letting people make comments to me that make me feel bad – I should just agree with them and leave them with no ammunition. Like if someone says “you’re eating a hamburger? They’re so fattening/greasy/etc”, I should just say “I know, right?!” End of conversation. “Oh my god, how could you survive without a car?” “I know, right? The bus takes forever!”.
Maybe the lesson to be learned is that “I know, right?” is actually a pretty useful psuedo-sentence. I used to hate it (what does it even mean?) but it’s the perfect response to annoying people.
I like “You may be right” for the same reason.
“Is that so?” is good too.
I will be paying deferred interest as I forgot to payoff the all the purchase amount with in promotion period (0% interest for 18 months if paid in full by the end).
I doubt any pleading would result in concession on the interest to be paid.
I answer the burger question with “Yes. So?”. And, to the car question, I would just state the reality. Thick skin helps I suppose.
Above should have been a reply to Carlee’s post (http://consumerist.com/2010/07/what-have-you-been-doing-wrong-all-your-life.html#comment-20325923).
I thought that by dealing with people honestly and above-board, they would do the same for me.
I thought that by having and shwoing integrity, I would be rewarded by karma.
I thought that by raising social awareness about a topic which negatively affects many people, I would get enough interest that I could at least cover my costs.
Worst of all, I did not believe in the maxim: “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Boy oh boy oh boy, did I learn some hard lessons!
I felt the same way growing up. I am glad I wasn’t the only one. I am sorry to know that you’ve suffered as much as I have.
~Sigh~
For me, What I’ve been doing wrong all my life is helping people with something they don’t have knowledge on. I thought that it was good to help others and maybe even teach them how to do it themselves later. Bad idea….
There’s a saying now that reminds me to hide the fact I have knowledge that others don’t so I don’t get taken advantage of anymore: “apple jacks and velcro”.
Definition: Make the people believe that all there is in the confines of my skull are “apple jacks” and “velcro”.
I am in charge of all the finances in my household, and I was very on top of everything related to that…until my husband’s 401K stopped sending paper statements. Every quarter we got one and I was always aware of its standing. I was then told they were online but since its not my account, I could not get access to see how it was doing. I did have a general ball park however. Plan was hubby would retire at 62, we would not take SS until he was 65 and we would live off savings until then. Or he would get another position. Didn’t happen. Hubby’s company went bankrupt, he retired way too early, his 401K was 30% in his company, and THAT is what he was hiding from me…his dumbness. Because I sold my personal stock in his company when I got the vibes….18 months before it imploded. I just KNEW>>>NOW he prints the statements but holey crap is it almost too late. We are now counting on my stash for the long haul….and hoping to higher powers his pension doesn’t go into the drink if the you know what gets any worse. Ladies-if you are the beneficiary on a pension, retirement fund , life insurance or anything like that, make sure you have access to the statements… you are entitled as far as I can tell. Don’t get the surprise of your life when you least expect it. I can live on what I have stashed for a while, but if a depression hits, it will be gone in a flash
Actually, being fiscally cautious has served me well. I built a house in late 2004, but kept it on the small side, even though my friends kept telling me I was nuts and should build a big expensive house because real estate values would never go down. It may not be a palace, but I’m still living in it (and I only owe $30k on it).
That also enabled me to leave a high-stress job that I hated and take a job that I actually like, so even though I make less, I’m a lot happier.
Last night I went to an ice cream place at the beach and ordered a root beer float with soft serve. I was told they couldn’t do it but the explanation he gave me was confusing. Not wanting to seem like an idiot I didn’t ask for clarification.
He poured root beer in a cup and then somehow hung the hard ice cream off the side of the cup so it wasn’t touching the root beer.
I’ve never ever seen this done. He said something like “put it in carefully or it will be messy.”
I’ve been drinking root beer floats all my life. I’m not about to let this 15 year old tell me how to make one.
So I went outside and proceeded to slide the ice cream into the root beer when the thing practically exploded in my hand (a slight exhaggeration)!
Turns out sometimes 15 year olds can be right. Why hasn’t this happened to be before???
Sex
I always thought the signs that read “Bridge Ices Before Road” meant the transition from road to bridge, those first(or last) 3-4 feet of bridge. I always wondered why only that part of the bridge would freeze.
Eating industrial/factory-farmed food believing the lies that it didn’t matter where it came from, and that eating fat makes you fat while eating the toxic USDA Food Pyramid (conveniently loaded with cheap, subsidized grain and soy garbage) makes you lean.
It’s all bullshit. Since January I have eaten nothing but grass-farmed meat/eggs/dairy, organic fruit and veg, and as much bacon as I can keep down, and lost 40lbs with no exercise. It’s not cheap, but what price health? “You are what you eat” is absolutely true. If you eat industrial garbage loaded with GMO soy, corn, wheat, and sugar/HFCS, you probably look like hell.
I learned that what works for one person might not work for another, and what harms one person might be beneficial to another! Isn’t that something?
What have I learnt over time?
The fewer things I own or buy, the happier I am. It costs less, I save more, and I’ve realized that I really didn’t need all that “stuff” I used to buy.
Yet, oddly…
The fewer things I own or buy, the less people think of me. Some view me as a “failure” because I don’t buy a lot of “stuff” – as if don’t equates to can’t rather than won’t.
.
Tying my shoes.
All hail the Ian knot!
Saving money in U.S. dollars. What a sap. All my savings held hostage and plundered by the politicians and locusts. They simply print whatever they want to spend. There is no way to save and protect wealth from those who control the money.
I have always been too trusting and given people the benefit of the doubt when often I shouldn’t. It’s been almost 50 years, but these rose-colored glasses are FINALLY starting to come off.
I have been working for over 30 years, and haven’t saved a dime. Now, they’re not matching the 401K anymore at my job, and social security is starting to running out. I’m looking at working until I die if I don’t figure something out.
Eating a banana.
Nearly all of us have always eaten them wrong. How so? Watch a monkey or ape eat one. This is their food; we merely snack on it. They, who swing from the trees and live in the forest, know better about how to eat the banana.
Here’s the secret: When you pull one off the bunch, hold the stem in your hand and open the other end. Peel from the end you do not eat. The little bit we don’t eat will stay attached to the peel and you will be able to eat the entire remaining banana and by holding the stem, you even have a handle. Keeps the hands clean and there is no fruit thrown away.
It’s so simple and works so well and is so just plain right, yet we all do it wrong.
Paraphrasing Douglas Adams, humans think we are the most intelligent species on the planet because we have invented money and jobs and wars and cars and computers and airplanes and all these other things, and the apes think they are the most intelligent species because they didn’t invent any of those things.
I combed my hair on the ‘wrong’ side. Somebody pointed it out last year and theorized that I learned to comb my own hair using a mirror.
I’ve been living close to 4 months now without any cable, landline phone, or internet at home. Initially, as I entered the workforce at 16, I believed in needing a complete bundle (with all of the above) in order to “fit in” with everyone else. After a roommate stopped paying the monthly payments (long story) for the above, I’ve been getting internet at work + at the library, been using a pre-paid cellphone to stay in contact with other people (at a far cheaper rate than the one I got from my bundle), and honestly don’t miss much from TV.
I guess if I have to sum it up, it’d be my belief in the whole “get a bundle, get everything at a cheaper rate” crap that Time Warner Cable and their ilk advertise so much. At most I’ll be restoring my internet service, but beyond that, I can live life without TV fine, and will find ways to get the most out of a “cheap” phone through services such as Google Voice.
Letting fear control how I live my life. I was afraid to be single, so I married someone I didn’t love. I was afraid of being poor again, so I worked lucrative jobs that made me miserable.
I switched flipped (or maybe it was a midlife crisis, who knows?) and now I’m getting a divorce and starting my own company. I’m certainly saving money on anti-depressants…
I thought I was wrong once… Then it turned out I was actually right.
Ohhh mine has to be my first major purchase ever. Working for 3 years in a supermarket to save up the $1300 in 1999, to buy a nice new Warwick bass. Well, turns out that the bass was too long for me to play easily, had no fingerboard dots, and is supremely neck heavy (a bad thing, as the bass should remain stable when strapped to you and you take your hands off. A fender jazz does this trick, alarmingly well).
Long story short, I play this exotic German engineered and built bass for 10 years, then due to an electrical problem, had to switch to a 2003 Mexican Fender Jazz bass my brother bought for $150 used. The Fender has neck problems and dirty pots, and the action is off, but it plays easier and I come off playing better on it. So, I could have saved big money and spent that on other gear. Oh well. I’m too sentimental to sell it, even if it means I can get an even better Jazz bass.