• nfcc.org - National Federation for Credit Counseling

When you go to a restaurant, you want to believe you’re being treated with the best service and care, right? Well, Smart Money recently published a “10 Things” list of things a restaurant doesn’t want you to know. The first is that you don’t want to go on a restaurant on Monday nights. Word is that they use day-old food that wasn’t used over the weekend. So, it’s not terrible, but if you’re paying big bucks you may want to go later in the weekend. Secondly, if a restaurant has a stew or soup on the menu, it is likely made up of ingredients weren’t used over the weekend. Another one to avoid is the “specials” on the menu. Often, servers don’t tell you the price of the specials as a way to jack up the bill. Be sure to ask the price of an item. Also, profit margins for dessert and drinks are huge. So, avoid those if you can. Fix something yourself when you get home.

This is not the best time to be a corporate executive who is squandering people’s money. The CEO of Citigroup’s Wealth Management Office was recently let go. Todd Thomson is the most recent exec to be fired for misusing stockholder’s money. He flew the corporate jet all over, used Citi money for lots of personal ventures and spent thousands to decorate his office. The company stockholders weren’t having it. Maybe we’re about to see a new era in corporate America, where people are actually held responsible for their actions. When these big wigs are riding high on the hog they’re spending your money. It’s a publicly owned company, so the money is yours. The problem is that the CEO handpicks personal cronies who sit on the board, so those people don’t take issue with the spending. It’s not fair. CEOs should put the worth of the stockholders first and should treat workers with respect. When that happens, employees are happy and companies make money.