Russell Aaron Designs

At what point do things get better?

Russell Aaron

The short answer is: I’ll never know. And that is what the government wants.

No, this is not a political rant. I promise.

I can say that as time progresses on, I am learning. I can adapt and allow for variables to come my way. It’s what I pride myself on. Being able to make a decision in the blink of an eye can and will save your life.  But the financial part of my life is always teetering and tottering around. I get to that point in my life where I need to make a decision involving money. No matter what I choose, I lose. It’s like I am always playing the house. Yeah, that is a Gambling reference. At what point do things get better?

When you are young, there are things you really care about and things you just could give two shits about. Take a bank account for example. You get your first account, usually at a house hold name bank, only to realize that you have just entered into the real world. You mess up with them and there is nothing your parents can do. No way out. You owe them money and refuse to pay. Your credit goes down like Kim Kardashian on a Football player. Well this week anyways. The point is, I didnt listen to my elders when they told me to never get behind in financial records and book keeping.

Who cares if you over draft an account. You are 18 and only care about getting laid and drinking beers. Then you wake up and realize at 26, you fucked up hardcore. That one over draft that never got paid turned into not being able to have a bank account for the next 5-8 years. Anywhere. No bank will take you. Unless you pay the fee and the interest on that sucker. So I did just that. In 2009 I paid it off and I was able to get a Wells Fargo account. Being mad at an ex girlfriend, I bought a subscription to Nascar Fantasy League, only to have it over draft again and result in me not paying it again. I still am asking myself “At what point do things get better”? No Answer.

Let me talk about something here for a minute. When you owe a bank money, they usually wait 60-90 days before reporting you to a collection agency and let them deal with collecting the money. They pay your debt and then they report on your credit. These “Pussies” called collection agencies use every dirty trick in the book to get you to pay. Funny thing is, I lucked out.

I get this phone call, in 2010, while I am at work selling subscriptions to adult sites. This seemingly nice lady calls me on the phone and asks if “Russell” pronounced “WH-USSELL” is there. I ask who wants to know. All the sudden this guy jumps on the phone and starts talking about this, and that and all sorts of things. Basically it goes like this.

This goes on for another few days and I ended up just changing my number. Seemingly enough, I just opened a new account with a credit union and I thought I had a second chance account. You know, where you can pay $20 a month for a year and then you prove you can handle the big people account. Finds out that the guy who calls me went out of business and all of his credit reports are wiped out. So he paid my debt and then goes out of business. Thanks to who ever you are.

So at what point do things get better?

Well, as far as I know they dont. I work for this amazing company doing amazing things. The company financial stability is a bit shot, so I am having to save and hold onto money just in case I have to wait extra days to get paid.  I was doing just fine before working for this SEO & Web Design Company. Bills paid on time, no having to call to make payment arrangements and etc. I was using a Money Tree account and they are amazing. Easy to use, debit card and etc. You just pay $10 a month to have it. No big deal. But now I have bitten off more than I can chew. You see, with the credit union, you have to charge your card as credit 15 times a month or pay a $5 fee. So when I went to Walmart and used the credit/debit option on the keypad, it used my card like a debit card. FUCK ME right?

The last thing I am going to talk about is absorbing your companies habits.

When I worked for a mortgage company here in Vegas, I never had to worry about when or if my check would be on time. When it comes to money, Those guys are on top of their shit. Seriously, need a mortgage? Valley West Mortgage will fucking hook you up like you cant believe. Tell them Russ Sent You. At the web company, we are still new and clients can be a bitch to deal with. See, a lot of clients we take in have had bad experiences with “FREELANCE” designers and developers. So “TRUST” is out the fucking window. So when it comes to passwords to hosting accounts, or DNS records that need to be changed, it could take weeks to get that info.

So with all of that to consider, its no wonder that we can never collect money. So that means that I dont get paid until we collect money. We do all of this work, and then wait to get paid. The client will jump down my ass if I mess up their site. But when it comes to payment, I have to be nice. When it comes to Web Design, the company gets fucked more than you think. So be nice to us web guys ok. Buy us a beer, or 6.

My point that I am getting at is, now I am in this financial hole, and living almost pay check to pay check because we are nice people offering honest work. My boss, owner, and awesome friend has it worse than I do. But before I worked here, I never had this problem with money. So it is as if I absorbed his problems and they became mine as well. As an owner, you dont think about these things. Is my financial problem going to effect my employee’s? Your to busy focusing on the wrong things. So I do not blame him in anyway. It’s just time to give up the nice guy act and actually collect money before shit goes live. McDonald’s doesn’t let you pay partial payment for food and then pay when you can. It’s “Cross their palm with money or starve sucker”. And that is what we need to do. Who knows, maybe the company can grow.

 

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