Jon Bon’s Money

          Maybe I am getting older, maybe I am getting richer, maybe my phone numbers is out there in a bunch of databases, but I have been getting lots of unwanted “business” calls from friends and friends of friends lately.

            A few have been offering a legitimate service, but a few have been straight up pyramid schemes. I have been expecting a few calls from business that I don’t have the number in my phone for, so I tend to answer my phone most of the time thinking that it could be important. Yes I realize that I can let it go right to voicemail, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a cell phone does it not?

            These calls that I get are usually not from a nameless telemarketer that I have no qualms about giving a nasty “not interested” and hanging up. They are from friends, acquaintances, or friends of friends. Not the kind of people that I want to burn bridges with.

            I feel like they are putting me in a very difficult position, they are using their good relationship as leverage into going along with whatever they are selling. What is a guy to do?

            The only thing I can think is be polite, listen to their pitch, and tell them in no uncertain terms that I am not interested, and then if they persist be a bit more direct. I feel at the point that I give them a pretty definite NO, that they have used up all the goodwill they have with me. At that point (I think) I am allowed to treat them like any other unwanted solicitor.

Moral of the Story: I guess we all have to do things we feel uncomfortable doing, and only by actually doing them are we able to become comfortable.

No it is not the new lame romantic comedy staring Hugh Grant. What it is is my one week plan to live healthy and saving some coin to boot.

It involves seven days of lots of this :

None of this:

Or This:

The two things I am not doing (eating out or drinking adult beverages) are where I spend most of my entertainment dollars.  It is just a good way for me to put into context how much money I spend on these luxary items, and replace it with a healthy habit of bring more physically active.  We will see how it goes…..

            Give yourselves a hand America. We actually did something that was both fiscally and environmentally beneficial at the same time.  

            We are consuming less gasoline, causing slacking demand, and dropping prices. This is great news for airlines, truckers, the cost of living, and the cost of food. Americans drove about 254 billion miles in August, nearly 6 percent less than during the same month a year ago, the Federal Highway Administration reported Friday. 

            This is great news for all of us. I would like to see some increased taxation in the price of gasoline to discourage people from going back to their old ways and forgetting the lessons of oil price history.  

            Everyone who is older then me remembers the oil spikes of 1973, and 1979. So lets keep the cost of gasoline high though taxes and then we can quit buying it from countries that generally do not like the United States of America.  

Moral of the Story: Using less fuel makes everything else cheaper.