Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for January, 2010

Given this week my fascination with the word Chutzpah (see for Joys of Yiddish full explanation), I figured I could do one more amusing post about the use of this word.

Know how to say it first

Many years ago I was interviewing for a job in a very interesting group. I had heard of the leader of this group, but didn’t really know him personally, so when he called me so I could come in for an interview I was very happy to come in and chat.

The interview seemed to be a little stunted in the discussion (i.e. it seemed mostly to be this person pontificating about his views on how technology was going to go in the future), but having been to many interviews I didn’t think much of it, I just asked a few questions to keep my interviewer going (I find the more an interviewer talks, the better the interview seems to go), so I simply asked open ended questions as follow ups to his statements, and time seemed to fly by, with me saying very little (of substance).

There was a pause, so I felt obliged to throw in another open ended question to my interviewer, so I asked, “What kind of person are you looking for to fill this job?”. This is an excellent time wasting question for an interview, as most interviewers don’t really have a clear answer, and if they are very confident like this chap, then the answer can take up to 10 minutes, and all you do as a candidate is point out how you are that exact person (a trick I learned long ago).

Sure enough this interviewer ran on and on about someone who could create symbiotic technology concepts, and show an ability to create a fused capability delivered cross-domain in the pike position,etc., etc., etc.,. I noted the catch phrases being used (without laughing out loud), and was formulating my follow up to this statement when the interviewer completely de-railed me with a statement.

It started off with the phrase, “If I could sum up what I am looking for in a candidate for the team, I’d have to use a word I learned a while ago, it’s a Jewish word…”, I fought the urge to point out that it would either have been Hebrew or Yiddish (don’t think there is a “Jewish” language per se). I figured that as long as he didn’t say “Shmuck”, I was ok, but what he did say was entertaining.

“The word that describes it best is someone with CHOO-TS-PUH…”, (I spelled the word phonetically so you could get the gist of this story). Now the word chutzpah is pronounced HH-oo-tzpa (along those lines at least), and the CH is most definitely not pronounced as CH. I must have had a bewildered look (it was actually the look I have when I am attempting to not burst into laughter), because the interviewer proceeded to give me an explanation of chutzpah (a relatively correct one).

I sat there using all of my inner strength attempting to:

1. Not correct this individual on pronunciation, because he seemed positive that he was correct.
2. Not burst out laughing at the mis-step (very bad form for a job interview)
3. Figure out whether I really wanted this job.

There was a long pause at the end of the interviewers ramble and I felt he was expecting me to respond, so I carefully responded how I fit the bill of this kind of person without actually saying the word out loud, for fear of offending this individual. After summing up, the interviewer then had to recap by saying, “So you think you have this CHOO-TS-PUH, do you?”, again, I fought hard to not burst out laughing.

My only way to respond was, “Yes, I think I am that guy.”.

I didn’t get the job, but I did get an interesting anecdotal story that I tell sometimes.

For those regular readers, you’ll know that I have gone on a bit of a Joys of Yiddish rant this week, but I can assure you that the site will not be changing to “The Joys of Yiddish Personal Finance” (although it is a catchy name).

In the Personal financial blog-o-sphere much less Chutzpah was written, and I can assure you that these meyvans are most definitely mentshes. Oy, what a week it’s been:

• PBS had a very interesting special on Credit Card practices in the States called The Card Game which has caused a great deal of discussion on a few sites. Again, classic examples of chutzpah in the financial services world.
• The Canadian Capitalist mentions the special directly in The Card Game on PBS.
• Whereas Michael James takes the special and disects one of the many dirty tricks talked about in the show with Many Bank Fees Should be Considered Interest Charges.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade also mentions the special in This & That: Kids’ Education Edition. Useful hints on RESPs here as well.
• Million Dollar Journey continues the education theme with Talking About Finances with Your Aging Parents … or Grown Kids. Always a touchy topic.
• Preet at WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo asks the intellectual query about whether it would be good Severing the Link Between Price and Weight Part I, take close note of the comments on this one too, some interesting points brought out.
• Larry MacDonald asks the interesting question Time to Raise interest rates?, and I think maybe it is too late, bubbles are forming all over the place!
• Four Pillars shows the hypocracy of Financial Blogging, writing about something they hate with the post Personal Finance at Ridgemont High, hey I write posts that I detest doing, but someone has to write it! As Mr. Hand might say (my favorite character) Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing?

The Card Game from PBS Video

Here is the video for your enjoyment as well.

Now that is chutzpah!

I guess I got on a bit of a rant on the concept of Chutzpah this week, so I will leave you with one more post on some of the things in my life that I view as chutzpah that I run into in the financial world of today:

• Bank Fees: An institution that used to simply make money by loaning your money to other folks and doing business in the greay area between loan rates and savings rates, now charges over $10 a month for the priviledge to put your money in their bank. You have heard my rants about Free Banking before, but the banking racquet has a corner on chutzpah, that is for sure.
• Credit Cards: after watching the PBS Front line special The Card Game, the entire Credit Card business is a shrine to Chutzpah. The Canadian Capitalist has a link to the special, well worth watching, but unmitigated temerity and complete contempt for your customers is so prevelant in the Credit Card world, it should be renamed the Screw You We Get Your Money Card business. The fact it still exists and is not very regulated, shows that Chutzpah works.
• Gas Prices in Canada: How gas prices are set in Canada is claimed to be by free market pressures, I disagree. To tell a consumer that gas that has been refined and delivered and sitting in holding tanks at your local gas station has gone up in price, due to International Shortages, is Chutzpah.
• Financial Bail Outs in the U.S.: that was gall, and chutzpah combined. TO have created the entire credit crisis via your own foolish (if not illegal) practices, and then going hat in hand to the government asking for Trillions of dollars to bail you out is chutzpah. You lose consumers money, through flawed methodologies, and then ask for more money from that consumer (through their taxes) to not lose more money? Staggering.

Anybody else wishing to chime in with their own private financial chutzpah examples, please feel free to comment!

Chutzpah?

For those of you who still don’t get the concept of chutzpah the best explanation I can find is from Leo Rostein (author of the Joys of Yiddish ), who stated:

“…that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

Now that is chutzpah!

As part of the gyrations I must go through to purchase a new vehicle, I must get my new vehicle insured (that is the law, no getting away from that).

The easiest thing for me to do, is to simply remove my old vehicle and add my new vehicle, and pay the difference in premium (if there is any).

This very task I attempted to do, however, I noted that since I am now a member of the Public Service, I receive a discount from my Insurance company, and I thought this would make things so much easier, however, I was mistaken.

Currently I am part of a discount plan given that I was a Nortel employee with this insurance company, and I have my cars insured using this discount. I assumed if I called the “broker” for the Public Service side of the discount, they would simply transfer me over as a customer and that would be it. Yes, dear reader, you guessed it, nothing is as simple as I think it is going to be, and thus the story takes a left hand turn.

Insurance Sequence of Events

I called up the brokers, and said, I am an existing client of the insurance company and I’d like to add a vehicle to my coverage, the young lady on the phone was more than happy to help me out, and she asked for my policy ID to “bring up my file”. I exercised my abilities in the phonetic alphabet rattling of various Alfa, Bravo, Tango and other letters and the young lady typed it all in. There was a long pause and she repeated back to me what I had just told her, and I agreed she had the correct policy number.

Her response surprised me when she said, “I am sorry sir, your policy is not coming up, do you have your policy with this broker?”, I said, “Pardon?”. Evidently since who I have my insurance with is not nearly as important as from whom I have purchased my insurance. I was told that I would need to call the “broker” I had dealt with previously to add my new vehicle.

The interesting twist on this is that the “broker” I deal with is actually part of my insurance company (from what I can tell), and thus I must call my insurance company, have them transfer me to my “broker” and then I can add my new vehicle.

I did finally succeed in getting a new quote for my new vehicle so that task is now complete.

Obtuse Insurance Games

My insurance policies actually renew in a few months, so now I will do something so obtuse that I must write it down to believe this, but here goes:

I will phone an insurance broker to get a quote for my car insurance with the same insurance company that I currently have to see if I can get a cheaper rate for my car insurance, even though the policy will be with the exact same insurance company.

I guess it makes sense given the discounts available, and the free market at work, but it always seems so obtuse that I can get a cheaper price for the exact same product, by simply calling someone else. Yes, I am naive, I assume the cheapest price should just be the normal price, but that is another story.

Interesting Brand Name Funny

When Buick introduced it’s new Luxury Sports Sedan (I have no idea what this class of car is for, but let’s stay on track here) they did not check with their offices in Montreal about the new Brand Name they were going with. This vehicles name is the LaCrosse, but in French Canadian slang, LaCrosse means … ummm … let me put this in a delicate way … male sexual self-gratification, to put it as delicately as I can. I was unaware of this, but I did check with a co-worker who is French Canadian and sure enough, that is the case.

This is almost as good as the Chevy Nova, which in Spanish translates to “No Go”!

OK, nothing to do with money, but still quite funny

After yesterday’s tale of Chutzpah I figured I’d show that I can show just as much temerity if I am pushed.

Over Christmas we purchased a new washer and dryer (a purchase we had been putting off but decided it needed to be done, as our washer treats our clothing the same as if you beat the clothes on a rock by the river). We saw that Home Depot was having a “Boxing Day” sale, and we actually walked down to Home Depot to purchase a washer and dryer. My wife had done her normal extensive investigation of the topic, so she knew what she wanted, so I let her have at it with the sales lady.

I wandered off and found that Home Depot did sell “liners” for my new green bin, and I looked at various other building supplies. I returned to find that my wife had settled on a model and price, which seemed reasonable and we then needed to decide when to have the new washer and dryer delivered.

Our previous configuration had a Natural Gas based clothes dryer, so to remove it and replace it with an electric dryer would mean a gas fitter would need to come and “cap” the supply line, so we pushed the delivery into mid-January which we were told was not a problem. We also “qualified” for the “don’t pay until next year (and then we gouge you with ASTRONOMICAL interest rates)” payment plan, so we signed up for all of this and left the store treading carefully (Ottawa had an Ice Storm on Boxing Day).

Fast forward to 3 days before the new washer/dryer was due to be delivered. By this time Home Depot had already put the purchase on my credit card (interesting, I never like paying for something I haven’t received yet), and the gas fitter had just come and capped our Natural gas line, leaving us with no clothes dryer, but for only 3 days (or so we thought).

That very afternoon my wife got a phone call from the manufacturer of the Washer/Dryer (LG) that our delivery was going to be delayed by over a month because there were no more Washer/Dryer models in North America of the type we purchased. Now that in itself is a type of chutzpah but at least they called, leaving my wife at a level of aggravation which if it was on a scale of 1 to 10 would be around HOLY CRAP! level.

I got on the phone to the manager of Home Depot to voice our displeasure about the fact that:

• We no longer had any ability to dry our clothes for more than a month (at least).
• When we “purchased” the washer/dryer it was not actually purchased, it was in fact simply us saying we’d like them and if they were in stock, we might get one when we wanted. No one went into the “warehouse” and marked a set “Property of Mr. & Mrs. C8j, deliver in January”, we simply put in an order which might be filled.
• The purchase had appeared on my credit card yet I was not going to have it for more than 2 months after I allegedly “purchased” the product.
• The manufacturer was the one who told us about this, and not Home Depot
• He had upset my wife and I got to enjoy her wrath, when in fact she was mad at him and his store

After assurances that the situation would be remedied, the Manager never called me back, but did call Mrs. C8j and offered her a “loaner” clothes dryer until our actual washer/dryer pair arrived, for free, so that we could continue to have clean clothes and such. Mrs. C8j was happier with that solution (although still secretly seething with hatred for Home Depot) and we now have this dryer in place and we are able to have clean clothes until our new washer and dryer appears.

Was this Chutzpah on my part to get a loaner dryer? Not really, but I do think it is truly chutzpah on the stores part not to ensure that they had stock enough to make their deliveries for the next month.

My guess would be someone looked in the inventory for the warehouse, saw there was a set left and sold them before they could be delivered to us, so someone else got a “great deal” and “fantastic service”, while I ended up with a loaner dryer and a wife with the disposition of a Wet Wolverine.