I’m often on both sides of the table, negotiating for myself or sometimes making the call and sometimes helping my boss make the call. You should always advocate for yourself, but for the love of god don’t be greedy. If you have an issue with your salary, bring it up at the right time, have evidence, have a good work…

I think that’s where the exceptions come in. Like I said, I went out of my way to make sure my one friend knew it was okay to have a plus one to make sure she was comfortable. She didn’t have to ask me, as a host I saw the issue coming. Much like hosting any party or event, you want to make sure you have invited…

Yeah, I can see how that would be irksome, especially when it’s something you tried to avoid.

Yeah, it worked out well, my married cousins brought spouses, but my unmarried college age drinking and party hard cousins had to go stag even if they were dating so and so three states away for the past two months. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Maybe this is more common now, but we had to say no plus ones. If we know you well enough to invite you to our wedding, we’ll invite your partner as well on your invitation. Case by case exceptions can be made. I had a friend from another place who wouldn’t have known anyone else there. I wanted her to come, so I told…

Yes and no. Federal student loan debt dies with you. Private loans, much like a mortgage can be put on the estate and its beneficiaries. Each state is different and in many instances there’s common law where differentiation between spouses is less defined. Your end result is the same though IMO, if you don’t have to…

Great call. It reminds me to comment about e-mail signatures. For goodness sakes, don’t just stop writing your e-mail and think that your 10 line signature that includes your birthday will suffice as a closing to your e-mail. Also, if you do have a signature, turn it off on responses. If I’m reviewing content I don’t…

It’s good if it works for you, but half the time I’m cc’ed it’s because my boss is brining me into an existing conversation and wants me to do something.

Basically, yes. I’m not defending him, but my boss tends to BCC me when he’s e-mailing “up” in the organization to exec levels so that he doesn’t have to tell me later or remember to forward me the information. It also protects me from their reply alls. He’s pretty good about it though. The biggest thing about BCC is…

This is why I’m stuck at my current employer. There are very few places that will give all of my dependents a free high end college education. By the time they are old enough to go to college, I’m looking at probably over $250K per kid in benefits when you consider rising tuition costs and the fact that I don’t have…

But you can always reply to just the one person outside of the group chat. If I get a text from a friend who’s expecting people to show up that says “let me know when you all are getting here” I reply directly to that person, not to all the other people he sent that first thing to.

For the love of God and all things holy, please use CC, BCC, and Reply All correctly. I could write a whole article about that, but for this space, just apply common sense and some of the advice above, like being concise and direct in your request. E-mail is not for group brainstorming.

Same, I’m chalking it up to how much people like and trust Kristin....

I get pretty lucky through work. I get 20mbps for $32 from TWC. It’s paid for directly off of my monthly paycheck, and will never go up. Years ago when I had TV, I could get the bundle price and pay a separate bill that just listed all of the internet things, like modem rental and whatnot at $0. This allowed me to see…

I don’t know, maybe she kept the window open..... I just know what I saw.

If it’s done right and purposeful. This was literally a washer and dryer stuffed into a shallow closet. The dryer vented just right into the bedroom. I didn’t mean to bash washer dryers being where the laundry is. That is actually a value added selling point. This was a hack job that was probably growing mold on the…

I didn’t mean to offend, but in your case, you did put it in a logical place, like a mud room. I’d say depending on the noise level of your machines, you may have added value because people don’t like to do stairs anyway. I’m talking about when the dryer just vents into the bedroom because they literally just placed…

You can also safely infer a lot if you don’t get a straight answer. I just both sold and bought. When you can’t get a showing at the time you want with reasonable notice, often times there’s a tenant, and the property isn’t as cared for. When you see a lot of poorly done updates, you either have a handyman who doesn’t…

Also, interest payments on student loans give you a tax break! I always just took whatever I could afford and threw it there. If I had enough to pay the interest, great, if not and I needed the cash, I didn’t make a payment, but each year I got a little break on my taxes.

I have not bought myself sweets in years. It doesn’t mean I don’t eat them or like them, and I buy candy for halloween kids, but never to have around the house. It’s amazing how much of that junky stuff you get for free..... as I finish a doughnut at work.