random rumblings » First Data

Paging Harley S.

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:03:54 +0000

Only those of you that worked with me at FDC know Harley. He was known mostly for his free money speech, which is how he described the employee stock purchase plan. He was no doubt right. If you had the money to lay out up front, you would easily make 15% each quarter. During my first few years at FDC, when the market was going sky high, I was making well over the 15%, which allowed me to get some financial freedom. But, yet again, that’s not the reason for this post. Harley was also known for not wearing a coat/jacket to work, even on some of the coldest days. Well, here I am in California, where the weather is nice even when it’s “cold.” This past week I kept getting weird looks from co-workers while walking in/out of the office. Everyone was wearing their coats to keep them warm during what they described as cold weather and here I was walking in wearing only a long sleave button down shirt. I tried to explain to them that the weather was still very nice, but that didn’t seem to work. Anyway, the whole scenerio got me thinking about Harley and his ability to withstand the cold in Denver without a coat. So tonight I’m going to toast a Captain and Coke to Harley. Not that I need a reason to have a C&C.

Chase Bank and Unemployment

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:16:57 +0000

Last November when I was let go from First Data I had the option to get unemployment insurance. I didn’t take advantage of it right away. I just couldn’t rationalize it at the time when I was getting a severance package that would pay me through the next 6+ months. After things didn’t work out in June I finally broke down and signed up. It took a little while for everything to fall into place, but I finally started getting unemployment in early August. But that isn’t the point of this post.

The only option for receiving unemployment was through a Chase sponsored Visa debit card. There was no option to receive payment via check or direct deposit to my personal bank account. After using it sparingly for specific expenses – like gas – for a little while, I started using it more often to pay for parking. Since I’m still living with my brother and guest parking is limited, I’ve been parking across the street for $3/day. Not a big deal considering I’m not actually paying rent right now. And I’m taking a long time to get to the point.

Early last week I noticed all my transactions using the Visa debit card were being charged an extra $.10. Apparently, after contacting Chase, there is an extra $.10 charge on every transaction after the first 2 each month. Doesn’t this qualify as kicking a man while he’s down? I mean, this is my UNEMPLOYMENT pay! Money I’m receiving because I don’t have a job! Well, that’s no longer the case, but do you see my point?! I don’t understand how they can rationalize taking money from people that don’t have jobs. At this point I never want to do business with Chase again… EVER!

Ironically, yesterday I opened a letter notifying me the mortgage I previously had with Washington Mutual is now owned by Chase. That just makes me sad.

It was fun while it lasted.

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:02:42 +0000

Today, the last day of the severance package from First Data, I accepted an offer to work for ControlPath. My official start date is scheduled for June 16th. Somehow I managed to milk every last day out of what I’ve called a mid-life retirement. All this didn’t come without some anxiety during the past few weeks, but that’s ok.

I actually had two offers extended to me this week, one from a public accounting firm and another from ControlPath, both located here in Denver. And, although the upfront money from the public accounting firm was higher, there is more potential income with ControlPath. Without going into too much detail, I will say working at ControlPath is a high risk, high reward venture. But hey, what’s life without taking a few chances. Or, as a friend says, sometimes you just have to say wtf and go for it.

Some of you might have heard me talk about ControlPath in the past. That’s probably because I’ve been consulting with them for the past 3 or so months. Rather than write about the company and what they do, here’s a link to their web site — ControlPath.com. The company is quite small in personnel, so my responsibilities can best be described using a baseball term – utility player. My primary responsiblity will be to work with clients to understand their processes and implement the ControlPath tool to mirror that process. That’s about as simple as I can explain it.

As for the past 6+ months, I’ve enjoyed visiting various places including Marina Del Rey, CA; Washington, DC; New York, Port St. Lucie, FL. In between all these trips I spent some time at my condo in Keystone. Blog posts for these trips can easily be found by clicking on the Travel category to the right. In the end, I can’t complain. The only location I would have liked to add was a trip to Greece. But, I’d rather visit during the summer so I can go to the islands. We’ll see if that’s something I can add to the plan for next summer.

Well, I actually have a lot going on in my head and could probably write a book right now, but instead I’m going to start celebrating the end of mid-life retirement and the beginning of a new career.

The End.

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:31:12 +0000

It’s been a stressful 3 or so months for me. And, although I didn’t think it would actually happen, I’m no longer an employee of First Data. This whole thing was a very frustrating development, especially after I found out a few weeks ago, with my final day coming this past Thursday. I’m going to leave details about my frustration out of this post. I’d hate for First Data to come back and take away the sweet severance package offered to kick me out the door. Even though it’s hard to come to grips with it, I’m trying hard to understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a long paid vacation. So what am I going to do with this paid vacation? Well, I have some ideas, but nothing concrete. The only thing I know for sure is I plan to take a road trip to LA to visit my brother. While there, I’ll probably head over to Vegas for a few days. In all, I’m thinking of staying in LA for about 3 weeks, maybe more. After that, things are somewhat up in the air. Some vacation ideas for January include Hawaii, Greece, Australia, or New Zealand. I wouldn’t complain about any one of them. Then, in February, I’m thinking of heading out to NY, Philly, and DC to visit friends I haven’t seen for some time. I’m still debating on whether to make that a road trip or fly out there and get a rental car to get around. In March I’m looking at two different ideas. One includes a trip to Port St. Lucie, Florida to see the Mets during spring training. Another option is to find a place to watch college basketball during March Madness. I have a lot of time to think about February and March plans, but I’ll need to make reservations for January pretty soon. Even though I’ll still have a couple of months of vacation time left come April, I’m hoping at that point I’ll know what my employment future looks like.

One question people seem to ask me a lot is, do you plan to stay in Denver? Well, that would be my first option. At this point I have a house in Denver and a condo in Keystone making it hard for me to get up and leave. But I’m not stuck on staying in Denver if the right opportunity comes along. Some other options include LA, NY, or DC. Each of them comes with some positives and negatives. The weather in LA would be nice and being closer to friends from my college years would make NY or DC a plus. All of them suffer from bad traffic. I guess we’ll see. I have plenty of time to figure it all out.

In the meantime, I’ll blog a little more often than I have lately, mostly about my vacations. And I’ll post pictures from each of the vacations spots. Right now I’m up in Keystone spending some time away from everything thinking about what just happened and what I’m going to do. Although, as I’ve said in the past, thinking isn’t my best trait. It usually gets me in trouble. I guess that’s it for now.