Expensive Lessons Get More Expensive the Second (Hundredth) Time
For example, I was with the LT (with whom I had a great weekend, even driving back and forth from Bremerton to Seattle four times) on Sunday, and I took a look at my bank statements. I should know better, because the LT manages his money like Alan Greenspan (or how I imagine Alan Greenspan would handle his personal accounts, not America's money) and I...do not.
It's not that I'm poor, as you'll see from the following conversation. It's more that I'm...well, scatterbrained. To put it mildly.
Me: "DAMN!"
LT: "What?"
Me: "I owe Key Bank $73.00 in overdraft fees!"
LT: "Baby! Are you okay? Do you need me to pick up some coffee bills?"
Me: "No, I'm fine." (I click and login to my ING account, which by the way I still love.) "See? I have a healthy balance here."
LT: (Confused) "Why do you have two accounts?"
Me: "I wish I could--I wish I could just go with my ING account. I hate Key Bank. But my ING account needs to have a "normal" checking account linked to it. They require it."
LT: "Okay. But why don't you keep more money in the Key Bank account?"
Me: "Because ING pays me A LOT more interest."
LT: (With great patience) "Fine, but why don't you use your ING debit card, then, more often, instead of your Key Bank one?"
Me: "Because I lost it."
LT: (Throwing his hands in the air) "I give up!"
I was passing this story along to my Tut-Tee Clair, and she said, "Um...shouldn't you cancel it?"
"Oh no," I said cheerfully. "I know it's somewhere in my apartment. I just have to find it."
For the record, when a sixteen-year-old gives you good advice--that you should be taking--about your money situation, you know you're beyond the repair given by professionals.
However, just to make my point, I did in fact TODAY find my ING debit card. Which never charges me overdraft fees. (One of the many, many reasons I love ING.)
And I have a Roth IRA, and a 401(k), and just a plain old savings account. It's not that I'm destitute. It's just that...well, let's just say that money is easy in that it just goes into accounts and earns interest all by itself. In this case, I think my own money is smarter than I am.
5 comments:
You know, I'd totally forgotten that I have an ING account. Whoops. I should check on that.
Hm. Please tell me more about ING accounts... What type you have and fees and minimum balance and stuff... Sounds like something I should maybe look into, but I don't know much about it. I just tried looking up infos, but I'm not sure I understand. It talks about an Automatic Savings Plan too, which I'm not sure is separate or part of it? You can e-mail me if you'd rather not write the info here... see facebook for my e-amil addy.
And in regards to losing debit cards in your apartment, last time I did that, I called and told them my card was damaged and it wouldn't scan anymore, so they sent me a new card with the same number for no charge. =) That way anything that was attached to my account for autopays and stuff didn't have to be changed and I knew it was safe since my card was in my apartment. I did find my card though before the new one got to me (though I have no clue how it ended up under the bathroom rug).
Skydiamonde: BRILLIANT, honey. Why didn't I think of that? And thanks for inspiring me to talk about ING--I'll do that next!
*laughs* Thanks. This slice of life story made me laugh at work. At least your loses are somewhat better than "my wallet is GONE"
I thought of you when I was at work on Friday. One of our teachers sells Mary Kay and had the catalogue in school. I was tempted... Instead, I spent $50 on "spirit" wear and $20 on a 2-year subscription to Cooking Light.
Post a Comment