6 Major Financial Changes I Incurred Post-Pandemic Because: Corporate America
There was talk our current pandemic would follow a similar sort of economic prosperity the way the Spanish Flu preceded the Roaring Twenties–
Fun times to be had. Money to be made. Bold fashion choices to be seen. Propelling us all towards our version of the Flapper Era.
But besides ill-fitted wide pants and baggy joggers screaming,
I spend all my time at home now, and when I go out I don’t give a f**k,
the only things booming and ticking are big corporations blowing up our false sense of security. And TikTok slave-driving our children’s psyches painfully in front of our own hijacked gazes.
Ok that was a tangent, but please follow me into the world of financial changes I’ve incurred affecting bills and budget in a short span post-pandemic.
These well established, publicly traded companies– companies I’ve supported for years if not decades– supplying services intimately connected to my day to day, are also doing away with keeping our collective feet on stable ground.
The list could easily be mistaken for “6 Stock Picks of 2024". I don’t know if they’ll boost your portfolio, singe the shirt off your back, or demarcate the lines between classes.
I spent hours researching, making calls, showing up to local establishments in an effort to soothe anxiety and find solutions for what life essentials I took for granted. The adjustments may seem like minor inconveniences, but it’s a shift like no other time.
Oh what a time. To be alive.
1. AppFolio $APPF
July 2023 the platform used to pay rent for the last 5 years announced it would charge a transaction fee with every payment. Turns out landlords had a choice to spend $1 a unit to keep using their platform, or pass the buck to tenants, at $2.49 a month, which they did.
To avoid this fee I had to set up a monthly Bill Pay cycle with my bank (Citibank– choice words about them later) to send e-checks one week before the first of the month to avoid possible delays.
Thankfully I’m a good saver.
In the good ol’ days it was enough to write a check and plop it in the manager’s mailbox. What was wrong with that?!
2. T-Mobile $TMUS
July 2023 my phone provider for at least 15 years, announced they would charge an extra $5 per bill if I continued auto-paying with my credit card.
The workaround? Adding debit card details to auto-pay instead, and then setting up reminders a week before payment dues to then manually charge my credit card. That looks like logging in and clicking a bunch of buttons including one for credit card use. I avoid the fee and still collect points that translate to extra cash for those cash trapped events– not so farfetched.
3. Citibank $C
November 2023 my primary bank for decades starting as my first ever bank account in my teens, announced they were “simplifying banking” by charging $15 a month for my checking account if I didn’t have a monthly $250 deposit ACHed in, which I did not have.
Not in this economy anyway.
The way around? Push $250 from another bank, and push that same amount back to the supplying bank.
Now I get emails reminding me of these monthly transactions just so I don’t have to memorize a new account number from a different bank.
The things we do to maintain normalcy.
4. Intuit $INTU
November 2023 an email from my Mint account told me it was shutting down and transferring data to Credit Karma if I wanted to come along– minus the tools that made looking at my financial landscape robust and informative. I wasn’t a fan of the budgeting app when it launched, but when Buxfer wasn’t meeting my needs, I succumbed nearly 14 years ago.
I did transfer over to Credit Karma, but it’s too depressing to see how little use it is now.
5. Kemper $KMPR
July 2023 and then official word came as of June 2024. When I paid the 6-month advance for my car insurance over the phone– the same company I’ve been with for at least 15 years– they told me they were likely getting out of the car insurance business in a year. I think I was in denial, or shock trying to keep up with whiplash.
Now they’ve confirmed with a proper letter that my policy would not be renewed after July 2024.
Because I live in California. Holy Sh*t.
After calling way too many insurance companies, meeting independent brokers in their 1990 storefronts, and consulting reddit, I learn that a new policy with a different company would cost me more with less coverage. And to elaborate even further, my Kia was blocked from securing more than liability because of its alleged street popularity.
I can’t help it if Krystaal stops traffic, but to deny me the privilege of paying for more insurance?
The agent I finally settled on processed minimal coverage– paid in full for the next 6 months of course to avoid extra fees– and only thereafter did they send in a special request to approve a “comprehensive addition” as long as I took pictures of my car in every angle, sign pages of legal documents, and send proof of all anti-theft installs while still on the phone.
I may have lost days of my life on this one. But no one puts my Kia in the corner.
6. 99Cent Only Stores $NDN
Don’t buy this stock, it doesn’t exist anymore. Because they went bankrupt. April 2024. The grocery and home essentials staple I’ve come to know since moving to Southern California announced they were closing all stores. This chain not only saved me countless times on cheap goods, gifts, snacks, and meals, but infested my errand routine for over 10 years.
Yes there is still the Dollar Tree, Dollar King and Target to hop on by in-person if I don’t want to order everything on Amazon or Walmart. But the discounts are not the same. The delightful discoveries I didn’t know I needed are severely missed. I am lost without my 99Cent Only store run. I grieve brandless make-up wipes and aggressively scented candles for $0.99.
So much for a golden age.
Any one of these changes would stoke ire in the average American’s smokey heart, less six. And what can be done? Buy shares of these stocks in revenge? If public corporations do in fact have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, will piling up and dumping them for profit be a way to stick it to Uncle Sam?
“No,” I imagine my impishly optimistic accountant would say.
“That’s what taxes are for.”
