| Most embarrassing money moves |
|
|
|
Lift of the Magi
"I'm not proud of it, but when I was a kid, I stole money from
my mom's coin collection to finance my comic book habit. My mother
had these coin collector booklets where you filled in one of each
year's nickels and dimes from each mint, and when I just had to
have the newest Spiderman or X-Men comic, I'd help myself. Comics
were 12 cents those days, so it didn't take more than a few mercury
head dimes to feed my addiction, but over time it added up, and
of course she caught me and tanned my hide. She told me that the
coins were old and were worth much more than a dime. Now, 40 years
later, the comic books have appreciated more value than the dimes
ever did. I had stored them in the same closet upstairs where Mom
had kept her coin collection.
"Last year, she told me that to save space, she
threw them out."
Cents-less embarrassment
"When I was in my mid-20s, I was between jobs and so poor I
was selling my books to eat and buy gas. At the gas station one
day, I realized I was 40 cents short of paying the bill. After searching
my car for spare change, I had to ask strangers to help me out.
I had to panhandle to pay for my gas! One of the most embarrassing
moments of my life!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"I worked for 10 years in television production
right after college. One of my responsibilities was timing the show
using a stopwatch, in order to let the director know whether the
show was running long, short or on time. This meant that I had to
calculate time quickly in minutes and seconds.
"I had used a pay telephone, and my 20 cents
was eaten by the machine, so I called the AT&T operator and
requested a refund or credit to the home phone bill. I received
a check for 20 cents with my next bill, which was for $9.10. So
I subtracted the 20 cents from $9.10 and sent them their check and
my check for $8.50.
"The following month, there was a balance due
of 40 cents, which I absolutely could not understand. So I called
up customer service and inquired about the unpaid balance. The poor
woman repeated herself at least three times before I caught on --
I had been calculating in minutes and seconds, not dollars and cents!
"Much to my embarrassment, I had subtracted 20
seconds from 9 minutes and 10 seconds, which equaled 8 minutes and
50 seconds, rather than subtracting 20 cents from $9.10, which should
have been $8.90, thereby explaining the missing 40 cents. I stopped
her in mid-sentence when I finally caught on, and apologized along
with an explanation of what had happened.
"I'll bet everyone in her office had a good laugh
that day. I know I did."
|
