This morning I spent 30 min that I didn’t have wrestling with my phone company who overcharged me by $57 on my last bill.

Was that a good use of my time?

What if I told you I’d spent almost 5 hours over the last month trying to get my daughter’s phone number off my account and onto her own account? Only to find that the easiest way to do it was to sign her up for a whole different carrier! And after all of that work, talking to multiple phone reps, and at one point conferencing in two other parts of the phone company’s service departments, they still overcharged me.

Would that make it a better use of my time, or a worse use of my time?

I wanted that $57 back not because of the money; it was the principal of the thing. I tried to work with them, I waded through their computerized phone tree, problem-solved their antiquated computer system, and this is how they treated me. I wanted every penny.

It’s not about the money

Why is it that we act so crazy about small amounts of money?

• Why am I furious about my news app raising its price from $3/month to $7/month?
• Why do I spend time returning a $10 toy that arrived defective?
• Why do I fly into a murderous rage when the “customer service” rep at the phone company can’t figure out how to honor a simple request?

The phrase “it was the principal of the thing” is a signal that part of my brain knows it’s not financially a good use of my time. Nonetheless, I’m waiting on hold anticipating the battle to come!

• When the news app doubles their price I feel taken for granted.
• I feel taken advantage of when the toy company ships a low-quality product.
• When the phone company wastes my time because their convoluted system can’t handle a simple request, I feel disrespected.

It’s not about the money, it’s about my status.

Where are there other places where we try to use money to validate our status or our self-worth? How often are we using money to force people to notice or respect us?

What do you think that costs you? How could you get free from that?

Just one more thing

Has this series on money got you thinking? Are there questions you have about your money habits, beliefs, or practices that you want to explore?

I’m hosting a discussion on Zoom on October 25th at 1:30 Central Time to discuss these topics. If you’re interested in learning more about your money mindset and what to do about it, hit reply, and I’ll add you to the invite.