Consumer Sundays: Finance and Kids & You vs. U-Haul
Welcome back, welcome back! Hope everyone had a good weekend.
So did you catch my column yesterday on U-Haul's gas policy? If you're using an eyeball test on a gas gauge, which in my experience with cars (my dad was a mechanic) become increasingly unreliable with age, how accurate can that be? I wonder who ends up shorted more often? U-Haul or their customers?
The only sure thing I learned from Lauren Klemm's experience is that you should never drop off a rental without someone there to check it in or else you're at risk of finding some surprise charges on your card.
I'd advise bringing a camera with you, too, so you can document the condition of the rental before you pick it up and the condition of the rental afterward... As a precaution, I'd say you should probably start taking a photo of the gas gauge, too, especially if you're renting from U-Haul.
And how about Eileen's column on teaching your children about personal finance? I thought it was interesting that classes on finance don't tend to stick with kids, like Trig (geez, I only passed trig thanks to my very good friend Michael who was a math genius... at least in my eyes, he was!).
We didn't have a lot of money growing up so it was always clear to the kids where all of my parents' money was going... to pay the rent, household bills and food. There wasn't a lot for extras. So when I started working, I opened up a savings account, too, and slowly learned how to take care of my budget that way.
How did you learn about personal finance? And have you passed that knowledge on to your kids?
Categories: Complaints, Consumer protection, Personal finance, Rent
