My First Car

When I was in High School, I didn’t need a car. I took a city bus from across the street from my house, to school.

Some days, I was able to drive my father into work, and keep his car, a PONTIAC TEMPEST, for the day, then pick him up after work.


Image: Dad's Car. Pontiac Tempest.

After graduating High School, I went to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The school is about an hour and a half from Boston. Undergraduates who lived on campus were not allowed to have cars at school.

BUYING A CAR
When I moved off campus in my Junior year, I was able to buy a car.

I had saved my own money and made the decision on what car I wanted on my own.

This was a poor decision.

I should have gotten some help in making my choice, but I didn’t.

I thought that a used car lot that advertised, “No Haggling,” was a great place to get a car.

So I like the looks of a FORD TORINO with low miles, 33,000.


Image: My First Car. A Ford Torino.

I bought it and took it out to UMass.

CAR TROUBLE
Shortly after I bought it, it started to have engine trouble. It turned out that the car didn’t have 33,000 miles on it, it had 133,000 miles!

The dealer offered to take out the engine and install a new one for under $700.

For some reason that I don’t remember now, I agreed.

That actually did solve my engine problems, but that was just the beginning.

The car then needed new tires.

I shopped around, and the best deal was from a table in the Student Union, where they were selling some type of reconstituted tires that combined the shells from nuts.

I bought those tires.

I was probably nuts to do it!

The next thing that happened was that the car started having starter problems.

SPRING BREAK

I was working at K-Mart at the time, and had the K-Mart garage take a look. They did some work on the car in time for a Spring Break trip to Florida.

I’ll never forget planning the trip. I called my mom to tell her that we were going to Miami, Florida for Spring Break.

She asked, “What airline?”
I replied: “We’re driving.”

To this day we get a big laugh out of it.

The car still had starting problems, so on our trip from Amherst, MA to Miami, FL, we didn’t turn the car off that much!

We also had planned to leave first thing in the morning and drive straight through. We got excited, and decided to leave the night before.

Another bad decision, that meant that we lost TWO NIGHTS of sleep.

The car made it down and back.

GOODBYE TO MY FIRST CAR
After graduating UMass and getting my first full-time job, I was able to afford a better car.

This time I asked friends what cars they liked, and many of them owned a TOYOTA CELICA. They all said it was a good car. So I went to a local Toyota dealer and test drove a Toyota Celica with low miles. This time the odometer was accurate and I ended up with a more reliable car.


Image: My second Car. Toyota Celica.

FUTURE SMART
What made me think about sharing this story, was MassMutual's #FutureSmart app. It’s a new tool for teaching #kids about making life choices and being smart about #money.

One of the situations asks kids to decide if they want to buy a car.

This is one of those great life learning moments. In addition to deciding if you want, and can afford, to buy a new or used car, you also have to consider the added costs of owning a car:

INSURANCE
GAS
REGULAR MAINTENANCE
UNEXPECTED REPAIRS

In my case, I could have done a better job of listening to friends and family, and valuing their advice.

Disclosure: This has been a sponsored post for MassMutual.

My First Job

Getting your first job is a momentous event for a kid. I was happy riding my bike and playing street hockey in the Boston area. A job would have infringed on my play time.

The problem was that my best friend, Marc, has a job at a local department store, Zayre.

My parents said, “Marc has a job. Why aren’t you working? You need to go to work too.”

So that’s how I decided to get my first job.



Zayre seemed like a good place to work, so I filled out a job application and waited.

No response.

My mom told me, “Give them a call to show that you are interested in them. They have a stack of resumés, and one person calls in, they’ll stand out over the other applicants.”

So I called in and they told me that there were no jobs available.

A while later I called in again.

Still no jobs available.

I waited a while longer, and called in again. This time, they mentioned that there was this one small job making signs that was a few hours a week.

I told them I was interested and was hired!

This might have been the most entry level retail job ever designed, but I was enthusiastic and was determined to be the best sign maker that Zayre had ever seen.

The sign making room, was a very small room in the back of the Garden Shop. In there was a set up that approximated the early days for Benjamin Franklin and the printing press. There was a vintage letterpress, with printers blocks, ink and a roller.

To make the signs, you spelled the words upside down and backwards as you set the letters in the press, then inked the letters, placed your blank sign on the press, and then ran the letterpress roller across the sign to transfer the ink.

Here are some of the signs I made:

Images: Multi-line, multi-colored signs. Advanced!


Image: Being Creative


Image: You had to be careful to spell backwards


Image: Should have said 'ribbed.' The clerks in the women's department had a good laugh at this one.

It was quite an education in printing history.



I went to all the departments and asked if there were any signs that they needed. Then I quickly made and delivered them.

I also made some creative signs that the department managers got a kick out of.

After a short time, I job opened up in the Hardware/Housewares department, and I got that job because of my performance in this lowest of entry level jobs.
Now I was working with my friend Marc.

I worked at Zayre through High School. My boss put me on the schedule for 2:00. I told him, “I can’t come in to work at 2:00, I get out of school at 2:30.”

He told me to get in as soon as I could.

I think I worked three of four days a week, from 3:00 to 10:00 PM.



What got me promoted and kept me employed was doing the best job that I could, proactively looking for things to do, and being pleasant to work with.

These techniques helped me get and perform well in all my future jobs.


Image: With my parents and store assistant manager receiving Zayre college scholarship

What made me think about sharing this story, was MassMutual's #FutureSmart app. It’s a new tool for teaching #kids about making life choices and being smart about #money.

One of the situations asks kids how many hours they want to work. Depending on how many hours they work, the more money they get. When I went through the app and tried to put in how many hours I worked during high school, the app didn't have enough hours per week! It had 20 and I could have worked 28 or more.

I was very dedicated to working and saving money. Most of the money I made in that job at Zayre went into a savings account, where I put away money for college.

This has been a sponsored post for MassMutual.

MassMutual's FutureSmart Program - Financial Literacy for Kids

Hill Harper, Boston students, and the Celtics were fired up about financial education at the Mass Mutual #FutureSmart Challenge at TD Garden yesterday.

#FutureSmart @hillharper at TD Garden @massmutual #sponsored pic.twitter.com/Cc9p81EQKn

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) March 29, 2017

FutureSmart is a nationwide initiative that brings critical financial education to middle and high school students across the United States. The MassMutual Foundation believes that financial education is key to economic opportunity. Through FutureSmart, the Foundation aspires to reach over 2 million students and their families by 2020.

It was a thrill for the kids to be at TD Garden and so close to the court.





Future! Smart! Challenge!



Here's Hill Harper on the court.



He had some great lessons for the students, and went into the crowd to talk one on one with the kids and test their financial smarts.

In life, you have to show up, and then perform. @hillharper #FutureSmart pic.twitter.com/BS9STvlI2W

— Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield) March 29, 2017

The kids learned how to download the Future Smart App that will help them learn about handling money.



I came away with Hill Harper's book, The Wealth Cure (affiliate link), and started reading it last night. It's presents a common sense way to think about handling money. It's sad that schools don't teach kids about handling their finances, and good to see programs like this reaching kids at a young age.



As part of the program the Celtics' mascot Lucky and the Green Team did some amazing basketball stunts.



This one did not go as planned!



The Celtics dancers though, nailed their tricks.



It was a great day for the kids' and I had a chance to get close to the basket.



Bonus: MassMutual archived Live Stream of the event:


Disclosure: MassMutual compensated me in return for covering this event. I was not asked to write anything specific about the event. All opinions expressed regarding MassMutual's FutureSmart Program are my own.