I Just Saved $155 on My Car Insurance!

Sounds like an old radio commercial, but it's true.  My son just took the TeenSmart course, passed, and my insurance company gave us a discount. But more important than the savings is the course claims to reduce the chance of your teen getting into an accident.  Statistically, teens are more likly to be involved in accidents than any other age group. The course involves parents and teen viewing some videos, teen doing computer-based training, and hands-on driving with the parent.  The course can be completed over about a month's time and covers critical crash factors such as visual search, detecting hazards, perceiving risks, adjusting speed, managing space, and risky lifestyles. I highly recommend the course for teens and parents.

Unlimited Vacation?

Sounds like part of a dream job or is it a joke? Some companies like Social Strata and Netflix are offering this unbelievable benefit. They justify its offering by saying most of their employees are hard workers or on call anyway so they deserve to take off whenever they want without having to account for it. The caveat is that this is for professional employees, not factory workers, because you can’t have the assembly line shut down. I know many professional employees who are losing their vacation time because they can’t take time off from important projects. And then there are others who really can’t afford to take time off to actually go somewhere. So, for them there’s always the “stay-cation.” They still would be checking emails and ticking off some housework list. Not really my idea of a vacation. There’s usually one person who takes advantage of the situation. But if they’re on vacation a lot and not missed, so will be their job. So, will more companies be offering unlimited vacations as a benefit? I don’t think so.