Standard of Living

I posted elsewhere a few years ago (5 years? Not sure since time flies) that I thought the standard of living was declining in the US and would continue to do so. I certainly think that came to be very true and covid just amplified the decline.

While technology in medicine is improving and helping out, the overall customer experience is getting worse with difficulties getting appointments, or in some cases just talking to someone on the phone. Obviously airlines are having a horrible time with any abnormal event and hold times reach hours.

Hotels expect same or more money while not providing what was considered basic services. Restaurants are raising prices while providing worse service due to staff shortages. Car repairs can take months due to part shortages.

I don’t expect companies to up staffing levels enough to resolve the phone hold issues but companies really need to up their game with web pages such that there is no reason to call in and tie up the phone lines. I tried to do everything on line with my father’s estate but Vanguard had numerous issues and I had to call and hold way too often to resolve them. TRowePrice messed up something and eventually I called in and if I didn’t it wouldn’t have gotten resolved.

Part of the problem are those people who need hand holding and won’t use a web page. While at a bank waiting to present documents necessary to set up an estate account, I overheard the lady spending a good 10 minutes on an unnecessary call where she had to keep explaining to the person that they didn’t get a statement yet because their account hadn’t been opened for a month. People who call too often unnecessarily probably should be forced to pay a fee like financial places do with processing stock trades.

I’m just trying to figure out whether where is a path to make money from these issues. I guess trying to identify companies that can come up to solutions quickly would be one way. For example during the height of covid, some restaurants clearly came up with a quick and easy process to handle curbside and delivery of food. The local chick fil-a in Scottsdale did a great job while the Culver’s had no clue what to do and people ended up waiting in a long line.

In the financial world Fidelity seems to have done much better than my experiences with Vanguard. I made sure to move all of the inherited money out of Vanguard because of the issues I had with the inherited accounts and a previous problem I had with them several years ago.

Anyhow, just pondering whether there are investment opportunities in these times.

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My wife’s IRA is with Fidelity. Mine and all of our non retirement money is with Vanguard. I use both platform’s websites to manage our money. I haven’t found one any better than the other. What issues have you had with Vanguard that you haven’t had With Fidelity?

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What issues have you had with Vanguard.

I get too many pop-up screens from Vanguard asking me to “team up with a financial advisor”.

intercst

I get too many pop-up screens from Vanguard asking me to “team up with a financial advisor”.

intercst

I’m having the same sort of issues with CIBC who bought all the Costco Canada Mastercard accounts from Capital One. They are trying to upsell every damn product they own constantly and keep pointing out that according to their records “Your net worth: -$200.37” and I should Create a savings goal … oh and do the CIBC Financial HealthCheck. Clearly I have zero interest in correcting their perception of my financial position? We don’t even have the new card yet but it will be arriving by the end of August!

Oh then there is this! "It’s our biggest offer of the season.
Get $350† and pay no monthly fee for up to 12 months‡ with a CIBC Smart™ Account. I almost never pay fees and interest is a verboten word to me.

Oh and “Registered Investments
Registered Investments
What follows is an advertisement.
You don’t have any registered investments with CIBC.
Kick-start your investing with CIBC Investor’s Edge. This is the end of the advertisement.”

If Costco wasn’t so damn convenient I’d dump both of them. Don’t get me started on their *Turbo Tax offer. It is better than the UFile experience I had with their Customer non-support that kept screwing up a simple password change. I should be able to finish up and file tomorrow.

Anymouse

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I only see that when I log on. Once I dismiss it, I don’t remember seeing it again. Since I usually only logon once a month or so, I am not bothered by it. If I was actively trading and saw it several times a day, it would get old.

I get too many pop-up screens from Vanguard asking me to “team up with a financial advisor”.

Ha! Fidelity just assigned me one, and he calls me regularly. I hear from him more often that I do from various family members. :slight_smile:

We got off topic a bit, but my sense is that our standard of living has declined if you look at the experience of the average person. If you have plenty of money, your standard of living is doin’ just dandy.

I also think that the availability of all sorts of shiny new advances in tech (that includes medicine) hides this. It’s like there are a lot more options on the higher end of Maslow’s hierarchy but fewer options at the lower end.

But I have no hard data to support this - just the sense that things are coming unglued. Example: we keep building and building and building on top of crumbling infrastructure. It doesn’t bode well for our society.

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I posted elsewhere a few years ago (5 years? Not sure since time flies) that I thought the standard of living was declining in the US and would continue to do so. I certainly think that came to be very true and covid just amplified the decline.

We are becoming more like Europe. And that makes sense, you can’t take just “the good parts” of European economics/policy without also getting some of “the bad parts”.

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I get too many pop-up screens from Vanguard asking me to “team up with a financial advisor”.

Ha! Fidelity just assigned me one, and he calls me regularly. I hear from him more often that I do from various family members. :slight_smile:

Years ago some guy from Vanguard called me offering help.

I told him “No!” and never got any more phone calls (or emails) from Vanguard.

I still do business with Vanguard.

I get too many pop-up screens from Vanguard asking me to “team up with a financial advisor”.
—
I told him “No!”

Just tell him you’re looking for a new financial advisor but your lawyer has advised you to wait until the lawsuits have been settled.

DB2

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