Personal Financial Rants

Let the Venom Spew!

Last week I pointed out some of my favourite Personal Finance Rants in The Airing of Grievances. Still, to start the New Year, I have asked some of my Finance amigos to send me some of their favourite Personal Finance Rants to show that they too can join in with the fun.

For those unsure of what I mean by a Personal Finance Rant, I typically go off about things in the world of Banking, Customer Service, or Personal Finance in general that get me mad. Commonly in those situations, I used to rant at my spouse, who usually got tired of it quickly and told me to forget about it. However, with this site, I can rant and then go back and enjoy it again later. I have even had a few responses from readers who have helped me deal with my problems.

So without further blathering by me, here are some of the best Personal Finance Rants for 2010 as selected by the crack judging panel (me and my two cats). They have been divided into three sections, each having its description of the level of anger and acid-spewing in the actual posts.

Some posts were not included. If you don’t like it, rant about it, and maybe I’ll consist of THAT the next time!

Legal Note: By linking to these posts, I neither condone nor agree with the opinions expressed in the standings. They are supplied as good examples of rants (my lawyers made me write this).

Don Rickles Badge of Honor Recipients

Mr. Warmth: Don Rickles is still one of my favourite commentators on life, and his rants and barbs are world-renowned for their venom, but he usually means them in good humour, so these posts fall into that kind of commentary on Finances.

• Credit Card Minimum Purchase Requirements Really Grind My Gears is an interesting post by Ryan at studentfinances that has a baby glaring at you, so that is great too. Credit cards are supposed to make spending money more convenient, but some businesses make them anything but by adding on unnecessary fees or minimum purchase requirements. I guess my only question is, why do you need to buy gum with a Credit Card, but then again, that baby might come and get me too!
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo ranted What’s Happening to the Service Industry, if you read other posts here, you get a good sense of where it has gone.
• The Happy Guy (?!?) sent in an odd post Five Animals Teach us Less Wasteful Dining Habits, which is interesting, and does have pictures of animals with weapons, which is always fun too, however, is it really a rant?
• Our old friend Michael James jumps in with a post that is mostly snarky, but still acceptable in the rant category Bell’s Generous Offer, where he describes how Bell Canada is attempting to lessen pay outs for a CRTC decision that they GOUGED their clients (qu’elle surprise!).

Denis Leary No Cure For Cancer Gold Circle

Denis Leary’s tour de force No Cure For Cancer crossed all lines and ranted about so many taboo subjects it is what my rants only aspire to reach.

• Evan who owns and writes on My Journey to Millions has a very philosophical statement Anyone that says they don’t want to be wealthy is just lying, which I agree with. The statement I don’t want to be wealthy is just a cop out. Excellent post, and it has a nifty bull-poop icon, to add to it’s theme!
• Almost Certainly Not How Carl Icahn Got Started is a scathing commentary by Greg at Control Your Cash, It’s about a welfare queen who wouldn’t stop getting pregnant, so her obstetrician did us all a favor and sterilized her. She’s a shining example of how to get anything but rich. Wow, excellent acid spitting, the kind that I look for in a good rant.
• Larry MacDonald (another old friend) shows the essentials of a good rant with Assembly Required – A Consumer’s Rant, where he describes the fun he had with assembling an easy to assemble ping pong table. This is bordering on my level of rant, keep up the good work Larry.
• Mike at The Financial Blogger goes Old School with a great rant The Future Shop Rant (an old staple of Financial Blogging rant about large electronics stores, I do it myself). It is one thing to have to wait 45 minutes to simply buy a washing machine, it’s another when you have to wait the same 45 minutes for absolutely nothing! Their financing system if just awful! Gotta love it when the post writes itself, almost.
• Bitfs at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff commented went on a traditional rant with Luxuries are Not Necessities! I saw an article about a professor who’s household is making more than $250,000.  He was complaining that his family still was just barely making ends meet since they “had’ to pay for things like a nanny and lawn care…I just got a little frustrated… That’s OK, you can get frustrated with stupid people, that’s what we are here for.

Sam Kinison Center of Excellence

Sam Kinison, THE Wild Child, was the greatest and will continue to be the ultimate, bug-eyed ranting lunatic, and these posts aspire to reach this level of bile spewing.

• Sandy at Yes I AM Cheap chimes in with a great rant It’s Your Fault You’re Still Unemployed, My rant was about my friend that kept complaining about how she couldn’t find a job after almost 2 years of being unemployed, but she’d conveniently forgotten that she didn’t even begin looking for a job until at least 8 months had gone by! It is friends like this that keep Financial Bloggers in Business! Excellent Rant!
• The College Investor comes out with all guns blazing with the post FedLoan Servicigin – The Worst Student Loan Servicer , This company bought my loan under a government program, and has completely mismanaged my account and many others.  Their website doesn’t update regularly, they have horrible customer service…the list goes on. Wow, my eyes burned after reading this one.
• I really like Rich Dad, Wrong Dad by Buck Inspire, and not just because I don’t like Rich Dad Poor Dad. I went to a free Robert Kiyosaki seminar.  I learned a few things, but I also left troubled, mainly for the other attendees in the room. Yup, when you start being afraid for the other “victims” in the room, you know this is not the area to put your money.