Who's Using Your Money?

Last night something happened that blew the fuse and honestly ... it's not only frustrating, but should be illegal as well.

This is a topic that has been in my mind for a long time and it is getting more and more important. It is about how you're managing your finances and who's enjoying the benefits of having your money, illegally.

To give you a little bit of context, let me tell you about the economic situation of my country. Things have been bad for a long time, compared to where I would like my country to be, and no matter what government got voted in, apart from empty promises, excessive government spending and channeling public funds in the wrong direction, we have not gotten much.

Then we had presidential elections at the end of 2024, which ended with the election being cancelled shortly before the second round, due to foreign interference and not only. Long story short, the old president's mandate ended, he didn't want to leave office, but had to resign as consequence of public pressure. Things were not this simple, but I don't want to focus on the political and legal part of things in this post, so as a consequence, we got an interim government with limited power.

In the meantime, due to the huge deficit, political and economical instability, Romania was risking ending up in junk at the upcoming credit rating review. My country has been borrowing at the highest rates already, compared to other EU members and ending up in junk would have meant no credits anymore as no financial institution would lend funds to countries in junk category. The next revision of Romania's sovereign rating by Fitch is planned for August 15th.

Again, long story short, we finally got a legit president in Mai I think, which meant a bit more political stability. The new president is a mathematician, ex major of Bucharest, who (allegedly as I haven't checked, just heard people saying it in TV) had some good results as mayor of the capital, reducing deficit to a reasonable level. This is not an achievement to neglect as these days getting rid of debt and deficit can definitely be the key to success.

Last year, the general governmental deficit of Romania deepened at 9.3% of GDP, from 6.6% of GDP in 2023, according to final data. The increase from 8.7% of the initial estimate contributed to the debt increase 54.8% of GDP in 2024, from 48.9% of GDP in 2023. In the first four months of this year the budget deficit was 56 billion lei (2.95% of the GDP designed for 2025), similar to 57 billion lei during the similar period of 2024. The European Commission foresees a deficit of 8.6% of GDP in 2025, if current policies are not modified. The Commission also involves a 1.4%GDP growth, according to its own Fitch forecasts.

At this point pressure on behalf of the European Union, for Romania to present a viable plan to reduce state deficit was extremely high. The risk of failing would have meant funds frozen, projects suspended and so on, so the new president was negotiating a viable governing plan with the major political party leaders, before the new government was sworn in and this is where things get interesting, or rather sad for citizens.

Reducing deficit can happen by reducing government spending and/or raising incomes. Simple math, not rocket science, but things are not as simple as they look at first glance, when you look at the details. Negotiations were really tough and heated. Some parties wanted to raise taxes, the easiest way to bring money to the budget in their eyes, while others would have preferred to keep taxes unchanged, work on raising the rate of tax collection, sell some of the state owned assets, those that are not used or utilized fully anymore and also to sell some shares of state owned companies.

Skinning taxpayers has always been the easiest solution but everything has a limit and it seems like Romania has reached that limit. Salary taxes are among the highest in Romania, compared to other EU countries, it is 42% and raising them to a higher level would mean people would be working to finance state needs, rather than their own and what they get in return is far less than the value of their contribution. There should be a healthy balance in this regard, but the balance has long been showing exactly the opposite.

Progressive taxing was also on the table, but such a move would have been political suicide to any political party or government and would have led to so many of the rich leaving the country, so the plan fell through.

As a result of the new governing plan, VAT is raised by 2% starting with August 1st, pensioners are contributing more for healthcare, tax for dividends raised, state company employees and government employees had their benefits heavily trimmed, energy prices are no longer capped and there's no state financed part, which means paying double compared to before, just to name a few of the measures taken.

Some people like to say that the United States Dollar is the best currency as the design of the banknote has never been changed and 1 dollar is still 1 dollar, after so many years, meaning if you would find a stack of dollars hidden by your grandfather, you can spend it today without any problems. Little do they know that things are not so simple.

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This is a famous and very important graphics showcasing the purchasing power of the US dollar, which is neglected by those mentioned above. You can see that 1 USD in 2020 would have meant $26.14 in 1913. I suppose the 2024's statistics is even worse as money printing seems to be the solution to every problem and we know very well where that leads. Today most likely you won't get a McDonald's coffee for $1, but that's the US citizens' problem, not mine.

Banknotes in my country have been changed so many times I can't even count anymore, and even though every change means a huge financial burden, the current buying power of 1 RON is more important than the costs of releasing a new banknote.

To give you an example of the decrease of buying power of the Romanian Leu or RON, a bar of Milka chocolate of 100g, a well known brand worldwide, was around 3.80 RON in 2020. Today if you want to buy one, you need to pay 9.50 RON or so. In many cases shrinkflation took place as well and what was once 1 liter of liquid, is now 900ml in the best case or even less, and the price is more than double. Chocolate bars are no longer the once standard 100g, but 90g, or 80g and the price, as I said, more than double, compared to 5 years ago for example.

I could go on examples like this till next week or next month and show you how much life has changed on economic level, but I think you get the idea.

Who's Using Your Money?

In these conditions, when your net income is becoming less and less and the buying power of your money is shrinking visibly as well, comes the question, how are you managing your finances and wjo is using your money?

The thing that blew the fuse last night is the latest shocking abuse (in my opinion) and I'm intending to investigate it. As I mentioned before, I'm in the process of decluttering, so I'm selling and donating to a charity shop what I don't need or use anymore. I made quite a nice amount of money so far and donated a good few bags of clothes and not only, to charity, so last night I thought I'd transfer my money out of the platform to my bank account and make a deposit to get the interest the bank is offering.

After completing the process on the platform, I got an email letting me know, the transferring process may take 5 days! It was late, I was tired and thought I didn't see it right, but after checking it again, it was still 5 days. WTF!?!?!? All of a sudden I wasn't sleepy anymore as this info got me pretty mad. I mean what the f*ck takes 5 days? We live in a digital era, a simple transfer should take a minute or two, definitely not 5 days. This, in financial terms means you're robbed of your money for 5 days and imagine, you are paying the bank to do this to you with your own money.

Another similar case happened with me about six weeks ago, when I wanted to transfer some money to an account in Sweden, that took them 7 days. I wrote a post about it here.

They say if you can't change it, let it go, which is the case here as I have no influence over banks and how these transactions work, but still can't let it go as how could I? It is the utmost frustrating thing and apart from contacting them and ask some questions, there's not much I can do. Getting them to court is like fighting with windmills and could not only take years and eat up all your money, but it's pointless as you'd never win against them.

Last month I ordered some home decor items and after placing the order, I got an email letting me know it takes 10 days to deliver. 10 days? Seriously? I could not let it go, so I contacted the platform for answers. Obviously I got and AI agent that was repeating in a robotic way (what a surprise, right?) the same thing, going in circles, that these are the terms. After the 10 days passed, I still didn't get the products I ordered, the pack wasn't even shipped.

Obviously the first thing I did was to contact customer support. I got a human agent and after checking the history of this case, he came back admitting that I was unfortunate to pick a Greece seller. Greeks have a very bad reputation unfortunately, so no surprise there, no offense. I was offered 2 options, to get my money back or to wait for the platform to get in contact with the seller and try to get my items shipped.

This is where your negotiation skills and knowledge come in handy, if you have any. Before I accepted any of the options I was offered, I told the agent that my money was blocked for 10 days and this is far from fair as who's going to compensate my loss? They have a budget for these cases as I am not the only one, so he offered me a voucher with 10% the value of my order, which was a fair deal in my opinion. So I got my money back, plus a voucher.

Another area where you need to pay attention and be super smart is grocery deliveries. I'm not a huge fan of ordering things, especially groceries, but due to circumstances, I am forced to do it. Quite often I get a different item, instead of what I am ordering. Let's say I order a bar of chocolate with raisins and get one with peanuts. From the shop's perspective, price is the same, brand is the same, no problem, but it is a problem for me. You need to check everything carefully and contact them in case there are differences between the order and delivery. So far I can say I got my money back every time the order was messed up (and got to keep the wrong items as well), or the ice creams were pressed flat during delivery for example.

Times Are getting Tougher

With services shifting towards self managing (dunno if there's a better term), and the distance between seller/provider and customer is getting bigger and bigger, you need to know how to handle your finances, look for opportunities, deals that are suitable for your needs and avoid losses. Everyone, from sellers, service providers and institutions are looking to gain, to make profit and if you're the useful idiot to provide them, you're going to suffer.

Sometimes it's impossible to fight against injustice, but where it is possible, it must be done. Governments are never going to cut anything that affects their well being, citizens and taxpayers will be the subject of cuts and restrictions.

You're either working to make your dream come true, or financing other people's dream life. It's that simple.

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: