Money Beagle

The following is a guest post from Tisha at Debt Free Destiny.

Being in debt is certainly no picnic, nor is it an overnight occurrence. Debt is essentially a cycle that can keep repeating itself unless you are will to break the cycle and eliminate debt from your life permanently. Getting out of  debt is not easy but it is worth the effort you put in. If the cycle of debt is broken properly the first time around, you should take away the lessons of not only how to get out of debt but also how to stay out of debt for a lifetime.

Here are some real life tips of how to not only break the debt cycle but also not allow history to repeat itself in the future.

Understand How Much You Really Earn
Many people make the mistake of considering their lines of credit on their credit cards are an extension of their own income. While that statement can not be farther from the truth, too many times people spend on credit money which they do not have in cash. Sit down and take a good look at what you make each month, how much of that money is being spent, and where you are spending it. Breaking bad spending habits can be the first step toward breaking your debt habits. If you are no adept at managing your money, seek assistance from friends, family, or a professional who can help get you started on the right track so you know where you stand.

Stop Expecting Instant Results
Getting out of debt does not happen over night. With the right plan, it can still take three to five years or more to eliminate debt from your life. Too often people give up too soon on their debt repayments because they don’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel right away. Patience and persistence will pay off in the end. If you don’t feel you can do it on your own, seek the advice from a debt consolidation agency who will help you devise a visual plan you can work from and follow to see you through the end of your debts.

Don’t Be Proud, Ask for Help
Another main reason people fall deeper and deeper in debt is because they are too embarrassed to seek out help. In recent months with debt headlines everywhere, it is getting a bit easier for people to avoid the stigma of admitting they are having financial troubles but there are still some people who will not seek out help. Instead of putting forth the effort to find financial aid of some kind whether it be from the government or from their own family members, many people sit back and let the debt accumulate. This leads to even bigger debt and problems. Finance charges, late fees, and penalties all contribute to larger balances that are even more difficult to pay. Pick up the phone as soon as you know you are headed for trouble and find out what you can do to get help during a hardship.

Get Rid of the Clutter
One of the top reasons people are in financial decline is due to their lack of organization. While we all live in a busy society, there is no excuse for not knowing where you stand financially and clutter can be one of the deterrents for not knowing where you stand. Sort the junk mail from the bills as soon as you empty the mail box. Clean out a filing cabinet so you are only storing what’s important to you. Paper clutter is not the only thing you need to get rid of in your home. If you are having trouble making ends meet, clean out your closets, your attic, and your basement and sell what you don’t need. Anything you don’t need entails anything you haven’t used, or seen, in the last year. Host a yard sale or brush up on your eBay skills. The extra cash you can make and the act of decluttering your life will be not only good for the soul but good for your wallet.

Take Critiques to Heart
Sometime people on the outside can offer you great advice because they see things about you that you can not. If your family and close friends are offering advice to help you overcome your debt problems, don’t automatically get defensive. Many times what an outsider observes about you will help you get a better understanding of where you are going wrong. For instance, if your brother mentions something about your frequent trips to the casino while you are asking him for a loan to pay the light bill, you may want to take some time and reevaluate how you are spending, or overspending, your money.

Tisha Tolar is a writer for DebtFreeDestiny.com, where she provides information about credit card consolidation, debt relief and how to get out of debt.

I just got an e-mail from the nursery that we purchase most of our annuals (and perennials) from.  They’re local so I won’t post the link, but they were advertising some pretty great deals:

• Hanging baskets that were $24.99 regularly were now as low as $9.99
• Flats of flowers are discounted 25% or more
• Other supplies such as mulch and gardening tools are on sale
• Even patio furniture is on sale

It looks like now that the ‘mad rush’ for flowers is done, there are probably some good deals to be had.  Granted, the selection may not be what it was around Memorial Day, but you can still generally find some pretty good stuff.

And, if you wait even longer, the deals will get better.

It’s a great time for anybody that’s been unable to plant so far, or who might need some stuff to ‘finish off’ the perfect planting area.

In our case, I think it might be worthwhile to stop by and see if they have any yellow pansies in stock to replace some of those that might not make it following the feasting that the chipmunks did while the plants were on the ground.

Regardless, if you’re looking for some good deals on plants and plan on doing some outdoor work on the holiday weekend, it could be a pretty good time to check it out!

It is amazing to me that 2009 is half over, but here we are beginning the second half of the year.  Wow!

I thought it would be a great time to take a look at the financial goals I set at the beginning of the year and see where we stand:

1. Pay regular payments on the mortgage.  Admittedly this was sort of a gimmee, but we’ve Achieved Goal and On Track for success throughout the year.
2. Avoid double digit declines in housing value.  Unfortunately, we’re down 11% for the year and the Detroit market will need a lot of time to recover.  So we have Not Achieved this goal and I can safely say we are Not On Track for the year.
3. Sell my car and purchase a new family friendly car.  We have Not Achieved this goal but I believe we are On Track for something to happen by the end of the year.
4. We hoped for a 10% increase in the value of our mutual funds.  So far, the market has been kind so we have Achieved Goal, but it’s Too Soon To Tell if we will meet this goal for 2009.
5. Long Term Savings – We have avoided any unexpected outlays so our reserves are steady.  So far we have Achieved Goal, but it’s Too Soon To Tell if we will meet this goal for 2009.
6. Retirement – We had hoped for a 30% increase in our balance.  Between market increases, regular contributions, and matching contributions from my employer, we have already Achieved Goal.  Still,  it’s Too Soon To Tell if we will meet this goal for 2009.
7. Level Out Monthly Expenses – So far,we’ve Achieved Goal and On Track for success throughout the year.
8. Transition to a Single Income Household – Again, we’ve Achieved Goal and On Track for success throughout the year.
9. Dont’ Freak Out About Baby Expenses – Some close calls, but we had saved well and found some good bargains along the way.  I’d say we’ve Achieved Goal and On Track for success throughout the year.
10. Maximize our rewards for normal spending – We are using a Citi Dividend Card for grocery and gas purchases (paying us back 2%) and have rewards attached to our debit card that gives us nominal points for regular spending.  We might be able to do better, but I personally do not enjoy chasing rewards/rates for things like this or for savings accounts, since they change so much.  Since we’re getting a level of rewards I’m comfortable with for nearly all of our spending, I’m going to say we’ve Achieved Goal and On Track for success throughout the year.
11. Reduce student loan balances by 30-40%.  Right now, we’ve paid 18% of the balance off.  With a single income, we’re not able to pay as much, so while we have Achieved Goal in terms of being on track, I do not expect that we’ll probably come up short so we are Not On Track for this goal.  Still, I’m happy with how much debt we’ve paid down and that we continue to do so even in small amounts when we have the opportunity.
12. Refinance the mortgage – We had hoped to take advantage of the lower interest rates, but unfortunately the declining value of our home has made this all but impossible.  We would either have to put another 20% of our home’s current value into a down payment or face PMI costs.  Neither of these is something we want to pursue, so we have Not Achieved this goal and I can safely say we are Not On Track for the year.
13. Begin saving for major home repairs – We want to start saving for long term expenses such as new roof, new windows, new driveway, etc.  Due to putting a nice chunk of our income tax refund towards this, we have Achieved Goal and are On Track for the year.

Overall, I think we’re doing very well and I’m pleased with our progress for the year.  The biggest bummer is that the home value declines have erased most, if not all, of our equity, making any financial goals around our home pretty difficult until that decline levels out.

Still, given how things have gone for a lot of people this year, I’m very pleased with how we are doing in terms of our financial goals.

I have been included in a couple of carnivals and festivals this week.

Please head over and take a peek.

Thanks so much for the hosts for putting up the carnivals and for including me.

• Blogging Banks hosted the Money Hacks Carnival and included my post on Resume Tip Number 1 (it’s a good tip).  In this carnival, I really enjoyed DebtKid’s write-up asking if we can truly live without credit.
• Green Panda Treehouse hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance and included my article analyzing the Cash For Clunkers program.  I liked a few other submissions this week including Financial Method’s discussion on whether new account bonuses for banks are worth it and Miss Bankrupt’s take on what not to buy at the dollar store.
• My Frugal Adventures hosted the Festival of Frugality and posted my thoughts about whether you can save on utilities by cutting back.   I really enjoyed the article by The Buck List outlining how to enjoy camping for less money, something that’s very fitting with the upcoming holiday and summer vacations.

This is the third summer season that we’ve been in our house.  I really don’t count the first one (2007) because we moved in late June, so we barely had a handle on things and I really didn’t know a lot of what was going on.

That year, I did the basics, mowing the grass weeds and pulling weeds from the beds.  But, it was only last year that I really started working on really making the outside look better.  I attacked the weeds that were filling in the grass and made it look like a real lawn again, mulched the beds, and we also got some flowers to adorn our deck.

The flowers themselves didn’t do so hot, and it turns out we weren’t getting the right type of flowers for the type of sun we got.

So, this year rolls around and we went to the nursery, armed with the knowledge of what flowers would thrive on our deck.  We bought them, planted them, and watched with glee as they thrived.

At first.

Now, they aren’t looking so hot.  Well, at least the yellow pansies that we have aren’t looking so good.  The other flowers (mostly geraniums) are doing OK.

It turns out that the chipmunks are the culprit.

That’s right, chipmunks.  Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and they’re host of friends and family.

After the winter thaw, I noticed some strange holes in the ground in the front planting ed under the tree.  I figured something was underground, and sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed when the hole kept re-appearing after I filled it in.  I even placed a rock that weighed a few pounds on top, only to find it moved.

After keeping an eye on things and consulting with my father and father-in-law, I confirmed that we had chipmunks.

I decided our property needed to be ridded of these beasts.  Initially, I had done some research and found that an effective way of eliminating them is to drown them.  A five gallon bucket of water with sunflower seeds placed over the water, and a small ramp so they can get to the top is a pretty effective way to get them.  They love sunflower seeds, they go to get them, fall in, and that’s all she wrote.

Unfortunately, my wife made me feel so guilty about this plan that I decided against it.

Instead, my father-in-law loaned me one of his traps.  The idea being that I would trap them and take them elsewhere.  While releasing animals isn’t exactly legal where I live, it is more humane than killing them off.

So, I started setting the trap and caught eight of the little buggers (as well as one really annoyed squirrel) and released them a couple of miles away.  Still, I knew that we weren’t rid of them as I still saw them around occasionally.

But, I got lazy as I got tied up with other projects, including staining the deck.

The deck staining involved me moving the flower pots out of the way underneath trees and what not.  Apparently, this attracted the chipmunks to ’sample’ the flowers, because when we went to put the flower pots back on the deck, it was with sadness that we noted that our yellow pansies, which previously had been taking over the pots, were now largely wilted messes.

At first, we attributed this to the heat wave that we had last week, when temps were in the 90’s.

Still, the condition didn’t improve even with extra watering and fertilizing, and I couldn’t figure out the deal.

Until a couple of days ago, when I looked outside and saw a chipmunk reach up and yank on the flower, tearing pieces off and uprooting it from the soil.

I actually went outside and chased it off the deck, but either it or another one was back at it a bit later.

I have cayenne pepper spray repellent that is supposed to keep the animals away.  I sprayed that on the flowers, and tried my best to replant them (though not sure if they’re too damaged yet or not).

After my wife saw this, she was finally understanding of why I wanted to rid our property of these pests.  Prior to that, I think she watched with some level of amusement as I was catching and transporting them, but after seeing what they were doing to her flowers, she was all for the war to continue.  In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she opened up to the bucket idea!

So, I went back to trying to catch them last night.  My father-in-law caught 25 or so before it slowed down, so I could have a ways to go.

Last night was the first time I went back to setting the trap, but was unfortunately not able to catch any.  The reason, heavy winds in the area that kept tripping the trap.

I’ll have to try again.

Let’s hope that we can ‘re-locate’ the chipmunks and save our flowers!

I’ve never had my idenity stolen.  I’ve read many of the horror stories that come along with it, but have never had to go through that.

But, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t come close.  Or at least feel like I came a little close.  Because there was one time where someone came pretty close, or at least a little too close for comfort.

A few years ago, I went through my mail, and there was what appeared to be a bill from UPS.  I don’t make any shipments, and when I do, I typically pay for them at the counter. The bill was for a few dollars.

So, I thought nothing of it and threw it away.

A few weeks later, I got a second bill, again, not for very much money, but for a larger amount, but still under $50.  Again, I discarded it thinking it weird that I was getting bills for something I didn’t use.

They got my attention a few weeks later when they sent another letter indicating that if I didn’t pay my balance, I would be turned over to collections.  So, I immediately got on the phone.

My conversation went a little like this:

Me: “I’m calling about a bill that I got for a bunch of packages.”

UPS: “Yes, we need you to pay that.”

Me: “I’m confused, I didn’t send any packages using UPS.”

UPS: “But it has your name and address here.”

Me: “While that’s true, I didn’t ship any packages.  In fact, the ’ship from’ location for all of these is in California.”

UPS: “Yeah, and?”

Me: “I live in Michigan.  How would I have shipped these packages from California?”

UPS: *long silence*

Me: “How would someone have opened an account with my name and address?”

UPS: “Well, that’s all you need to open an account.”

Me: “You don’t need a credit card? A social security number? A drivers license?”

UPS: “No.”

Me: “So, anybody could just find someone elses name and address and open an account and start shipping packages, and UPS is OK with that?”

UPS: “Yeah, seems a little strange, doesn’t it?”

Me: “So, you’re going to take those charges off my account, the one that I never opened, and close the account, too, while you’re at it?”

UPS: “You’re sure you never opened that account or shipped those packages?”

Me: “Positive.”

UPS: “OK, then, we’ll take care of that.”

Pretty amazing stuff, isn’t it?  Now, this was a few years ago so I’m really hoping that UPS does not simply allow accounts to be created in such fashion.  It seemed that before, you could just create an account and start shipping with it.  Granted, the number of shipments was small, so I’m guessing (hoping) that for bulk shippers, they would have required a line of credit.

But, really, who knows?

At the time, I didn’t really think much about it, but it was about as close I could have gotten to having my identity stolen without it actually happening.

It taught me a few lessons though:

• Pay attention to your bills - I simply threw the bills out because I knew that they weren’t mine, but if I hadn’t, who knows if UPS would have somehow been able to find me and put a blemish on my credit report.  It doesn’t seem likely since they didn’t have my SSN, but then again, I would have thought it pretty unlikely that they would open an account without somehow verifying the person opening the account.
• Be careful of your personal information - Keep your personal information, especially things like account numbers, drivers license numbers, and other key information, safe.
• Check your credit report – I check my credit report (and my wife’s) every four months, using our three free reports from AnnualCreditReport.com.  After this, I have always kept an eye on it to make sure that every single creditor is someone I know.  So far, I’ve had no surprises.
• Check your balances often – Did you know that the longer you wait before notifying a bank or credit card company of fraudulent activity, the more you’re responsible for?   I try to check my balances every day or two days on my bank accounts and credit cards.

Any other tips on preventing or dealing with identity theft?  Any close calls?

When you Google “saving money on utilities” you get 18,700,000 results.

This is obviously a very well written about subject.

However, the rationale behind the most recent water rate hike by the City of Detroit for water (Detroit provides water to the city and most of the outlying suburbs) made me wonder how much money we can truly save by cutting back on utilities.

From the Detroit News, here is a summary with two reasons as to why water rates went up:

Customers are set to see bills go up about 8 percent, an amount Detroit Water Department officials say is needed to bolster declining revenues and counter surging interest rates on money the system has borrowed for capital improvements.

The reason for the declining revenues?  Lower consumption.

People in the Detroit area have been cutting back water usage.  With the economy in a downturn, people are trying to cut back the non-essentials.  Whether it’s letting their lawns go brown or taking quicker showers, the average water usage has gone down.

So, how are people rewarded for their ability to use less?  They simply get charged more.

See, the water company depends on a certain amount of revenue a year to cover costs. If they don’t meet that revenue, they can’t pay for the employees, for the electricity, for the maintenence of the infrastructure, and all the other costs that it takes to deliver water to millions of households.

It then begs the question as to whether you can really save money on utilities by cutting back?  I suppose the ‘above-average’ saving household could still save, but if you if you cut back by the rate at which consumption drops, you really won’t save money.  Yes, you’ll be preventing your bill going up even more than if you hadn’t cut back, but it is still discouraging to reduce consumption and see your bill come in the same.  Or more.

And, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this type of pricing model holds true for just about all utilities.  Electricity.  Gas.  I would guess that they all have a level of expected revenue that they will figure out how to cover, no matter what.

So, is it worth it to cut back?

Despite evidence that I’ve presented, I still say it is.

Why?

First, I think that it’s important to preserve our natural resources.  Bottom line, the water and the electricity use natural resources that are limited in supply, and also can cause pollution, global warming, and other problems with our planet.  Reducing usage will only prolong the life of our precious Earth.

Second, it does slow down the increase in hit that you’ll feel in your pocketbook.  The argument could be made that the utility companies would raise the prices even if demand didn’t go down.  In that case, your out-of-pocket costs would rise even faster.

And, quite honestly, even when I’ve ‘cut back’ on usage in the past, I’ve never reduced the budget that I expect to pay for utilities.  Simply because I expect that costs will continue to rise.  I might not budget an increase over time, but I guess I have sort of accepted the fact that the utilty companies, by and large, are going to collect what they feel they need to no matter what.  Short of getting ‘off the grid’ altogether, which simply isn’t possible for the majority of people, we simply have to try our best and hope for a delicate balance between increased costs and cutting back.

Please subscribe to my RSS Feed or have Money Beagle articles delivered daily via e-mail.  You can also follow me on Twitter. © 2009 Money Beagle.

One of the biggest topics in the personal finance world is one of the many current attempts by the government to stimulate the economy, known as the Cash For Clunkers deal.

There’s a million and one articles about it, so I’ll give a summary as: If your car is worth less than $4,500 dollars, you could benefit by turning it in for a ‘voucher’ that will give you that credit and purchasing a more fuel efficient car.

The rationale behind this, from what I can gather, is twofold:

First, the government is hoping that extra spending occurs that might not otherwise occur.  With the economy in a recession, the idea is to get people spending. Since the government has loaned billions of dollars to the auto companies, it makes sense from their standpoint to try to get people to spend money in this industry.  Though, it is worth noting that there aren’t any provisions to favor the companies that the government has lent money to.

Second, the government is hoping that by getting the cars with lower MPG off the road, they will be replaced by more fuel efficient cars.  This will, in theory, reduce our oil consumption and also help the enviornment.

I’m sure that there are other reasons, but out of the roughly 81,234 articles I’ve read on the topic so far, these are the two areas that I think are key.

So, the burning question? What does Money Beagle think of the Cash For Clunkers program?

My first thought was that it was a good idea, because you could get trade-in value for your car PLUS the tax credit.

Oops, not so much.  Turns out that one of the provisions is that the car has to be scrapped, so that the lower MPG cars are taken off the road.

My second thought was that it would really help sell a lot of cars. Then I started looking at the restrictive requirements.   From what I can tell, most cars that qualify are going to be pretty darn old.   I think just about every car built in the last five years is going to be exempt, and I’d guess that over half the people that own or lease cars have a car that’s under five years.  So, half of your potential market is gone.

Out of the remaining group, there are still going to be a bunch of cars that will not qualify simply because they already get decent mileage.  I plugged in my car (a 2003 Olds Alero), a car that is six and a half years old, into the tool, and found that it wouldn’t qualify as a clunker because it gets pretty good mileage.  Not to mention the fact that Kelly Blue Book has it priced higher than the $4,500 credit that I might get even if it did qualify.

Now, for the remaining group, your car has to get low gas mileage plus, now, it has to be worth $4,500 or less.  This is the only two criteria where you would benefit from the program.

This seems to me that it’s a pretty small percentage of the car driving people that fall into this category.

Out of this small group, how many people are actually going to take advantage of it?  That’s the billion dollar question (which is what they are saying the program will cost), isn’t it?

The answer, at least as far as I can tell, is probably not a lot of people.  You’re going to have a large number of people that drive ‘clunkers’ that can’t afford a new car, plain and simple.  In most cases, you’re asking people to buy at least a $12,000 car.  Even with the $4,500 credit, that’s still $7,500 (plus taxes and all the other fees that come with getting a new car) that people would have to come up with or finance.  Or, they’d have to take  a lease.

For people that are barely scraping by, this isn’t going to be an option.  At least not a good one.

And, for people that can afford it?  They might not want to get a new car.  There are a lot of people that save money by buying used cars and then drive them into the ground.  Would they consider trading in their car before they’re ready?  Maybe.  Would they consider buying/leasing new instead of getting a used one?  Maybe.  But, I can certainly guess that a lot of people might figure that it’d still be cheaper for them to keep their car until it dies and then buy a used one.  They wouldn’t have the depreciation costs and they wouldn’t be getting a car before they’re ready.

So, to sum it up, I think the program is restrictive in the target audience, and is making a lot of assumptions about the needs and abilities of those within the target audience.

Thus, the Cash For Clunkers gets a thumbs down from Money Beagle.

Please subscribe to my RSS Feed or have Money Beagle articles delivered daily via e-mail.  You can also follow me on Twitter. © 2009 Money Beagle.

The discussion everywhere has been how to reign in or modify the health care system so that costs do not continue to spiral out of control.

One simple suggestion I have is to cut back on all the paperwork!

As I’ve blogged about before, my wife had our first child recently.  It’s been four weeks already (and WOW, have they flown by).  A few days after he was born, he had a quick visit to the emergency room because of some problems feeding and holding down food. Thank goodness those have been resolved.

But, since we’ve gotten home from the hospital, the amount of paperwork that we’ve gotten has been staggering.  There honestly has not been a day gone by in the last three weeks that we’ve opened up the mailbox and found some sort of paperwork.

These have included:

• Envelope upon envelope of Explanation of Benefit (EOB)  forms from the insurance company.  Occasionally, they will combine multiple explanations in one mailing, but it’s pretty rare.  There are so many providers that have submitted claims, from the hospital for care of my wife to the hospital for the care of our newborn to the provider of the epidural to the OB/GYN office that took care of my wife.   The part that annoys me is that they also put the EOB statements online.  That’s not the annoying part, but what is is that in most cases, I’ve already logged on and have seen the EOB’s, so the paper copy is redundant, yet there’s no way to go ‘online only’.
• Bills from all of the providers above.  In most cases, they send a separate bill for every item, even though my wife and my son each have one account.  In many cases, the balances don’t even add up to the combined totals, so I have to keep track of them to make sure we’re not overpaying or underpaying.
• Coordination of benefits form – My insurance company decided that now would be a good time to confirm that my family does not have coverage through another insurance plan.  So, they sent a five page questionire to me.  The great thing about it is that for me to say ‘No’ (which was the answer) involved me checking one box and signing my name.  A complete waste of paper, and something that I could have easily done online had this been an option (it’s not).
• FSA reimbursement forms – We are using our Flexible Spending Account money to pay for most everything.  The company that administers this requires a receipt for most purchases so that they can verify that the purchase qualifies.  Thankfully, ADP has gotten themselves together to where they don’t send a paper copy of this request in the mail.  They actually e-mail it.  Still, they don’t allow me to scan in the receipts.  I have to mail or fax them. So, I have to print out a copy of their claim form and head over to the fax machine.  They’re the most electronic of the bunch, but it’s still one giant waste of paper as far as I’m concerned.

It gets worse.

Because the insurance company chose to have me fill out the coordination of benefits forms, they delayed payment on over half of the bills that came through.  Yet they sent EOB forms to let us know that they were ‘Pending’!

Gee, thanks!

So, not only do I have a pile of papers letting me know that nothing has been done, once they re-process the claims, they’ll surely send brand new EOB forms for every single claim with the adjusted amounts.

Please subscribe to my RSS Feed or have Money Beagle articles delivered daily via e-mail.  You can also follow me on Twitter. © 2009 Money Beagle.

Every day, there are new articles about things to do to improve your chances on a job search.  Many of these concentrate on tips tied to your resume, and how to make sure it stands out and presents you in the most favorable light to get that ‘dream job’.

I’m here to reinforce one tip, and that’s tied to proofreading:  Make sure you proofread EVERY part of your resume.  And I mean every single part.

Here’s a true story that illustrates the reason for this:

A week or two ago, I came in from work, excited as always to see my wife and newborn son.  I heard my wife’s voice from another room and could tell that she was just answering the phone.  Her end of the conversation went something like this:

“Hello?”

“No, you have the wrong number.”

“It’s OK, but this is like the third or fourth call I’ve received today for that name, so I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’d really appreciate if the calls here could stop.”

“Oh, really, then she has the wrong phone number listed on her resume, because this has been my phone number for years.”

“Thanks, goodbye.”

That’s right, folks, the calls that my wife was receiving was for someone else’s job search.  They posted their resume online, and had my wife’s number listed as their own.  The person obviously must have had quite a resume, since she seemed to be getting a number of calls. 

Still, this is one of the more bonehead moves I could think to make when posting your resume.  It’s one thing to spell a word incorrectly or to make a gramatical error, but to get probably the most key piece of information besides your name incorrect? 

I just hope she wasn’t applying for a position of proofreader.

So, it just goes to show that reading every part of your resume is critical before posting it or sending it to prosepctive employers.  Who knows how many of the recruiters that had been calling simply bypassed her and went on to the next resume after realizing that the number they were calling was incorrect?  In this job market, I certainly wouldn’t blame a recruiter for saying “Hmmmm….doesn’t list own phone number properly….REJECTED” and hitting the next resume.  Somebody may have been kind enough to alert her (possibly through e-mail or snail mail) of the error, or she realized it herself, because the calls have stopped.

Yet, I wonder, could she have missed out on her dream job because of not re-reading every part of her resume?

Please subscribe to my RSS Feed or have Money Beagle articles delivered daily via e-mail.  You can also follow me on Twitter. © 2009 Money Beagle.