There’s an iconic American zombie film that opens with a Mr. Disney type character watching a home movie of his friends and family. He is happy, laughing and smiling. The strangely he starts to sob and break down in fear.
I saw this as a very young child when Saturday afternoons were dedicated to Scifi, Bruce Lee and Kung Fu movie. It is the only scene of the movie that hit home to this day.
That feeling came back to me when I got a note from my US bank and remembered this classic TV show Dennis the Menace S03 - Ep13 Dennis’ Bank Account.
This show was designed to teach us about the joys of having a bank account and earning interest. This stayed with me when I left America and, on a visit with my wife, I encouraged her to open a small account.
We left. A few years went by. I decided to check in with our bank, a Federal Credit Union where “YOU ARE THE F-BOMB SHARE HOLDER”, yeah right.
Not just any bank, mind you. It’s a military credit union where I was permitted to join because of the “Service Of My Parents”. We’re supposed to be “family.”
Well, I checked in. Instead of seeing a growing balance, I find my bank account a couple hundred dollars LESS. My wife, her account was totally gone, gobbled up.
WTF happened? Some time later, after we returned to Taiwan, all US banks decided they should charge an inactive fee for not using your savings account.
I managed to get most of my stolen fees returned but I still lost $70. My wife’s account, was a minimum balance account so she lost everything.
Now every couple years I have to go through the hassle of restarting my bank account because I don’t use the money here in Taiwan. PayPal, which I used to use to transfer money between the two locations flag me as being fraudulent so that easy way to manage money with gone.
Paypal, what a freaking joke. I talked to the top manager, verified my accounts and despite proving the ownership and the addresses, the top manager could not do anything. He said the algorithm won’t let me. No, he did not say algorithm, he said the system. That was the years ago before there was such a thing as an algorithm excuse
So that’s my rant folks. My kids belong to a small Church Credit Union here in Taiwan, and they put small deposits in since they were very little.
At least that bank and probably others have the ethic that saving money is a good thing.
My Effing American bank, tells me I have to check in often or they Effing stop paying what little interest they give me and charge me 10+ dollars a month just so they can use my money to sell loans, mortgages and credit cards.
What about you? Do you know any banks in the US who believe in the small customer. Any free checking? I won’t use it often but it would be cheaper than the usual Taiwan Bank USD certified check.
Wait until America adopts negative interest rates like some countries…then you will be paying the bank more fees to hold your money.
My account in the U.S. requires US$20,000 minimum average amount. I make about US$2.50 per year in interest.
Taiwan will move into higher fees for small deposits. Very obvious the push in Taiwan banks to service the bigger depositors using their investment services. Even in Hualien I noted that Fubon bank moved its investment managers from the basement to take up the whole first floor…meaning the day-to-day bank counters moved downstairs. Plush, nice first floor…downstairs just a basic counter. ChinaTrust is not much different. Crowded, noisy upstairs versus quiet comfortable first floor.
There is just no money to make in small depositors who are mostly moving money around which is administrative costs.
The average joe will be paying higher fees and waiting in longer lines with fewer service people allocated to the small depositor. If at all possible, they must scrap together all their funds to deposit at one bank and hope have enough to make a few small investments to get them into the lower or no fee realm.
I know some people who have multiple accounts at different banks all due to having many credit cards opened just to take advantage of some one-time offer. Bank accounts are no longer a game to be played just to get a free coffee maker.
I haven’t see that in Taiwan so far. I have accounts with like 50nt in it for many years because I just don’t use them. Many years later there’s maybe 3nt more in the account than before. But I don’t know if this will change in the future.
Index mutual funds or ETFs. There are more than a few threads on it here, and lots of information about it online.
But … there is always some element of risk, and some people are uncomfortable with that. Personally, I am more uncomfortable with the near negative interest rates that banks give, as if we should be grateful they hold our money for us.
Yup. Anything but cash. Cash is pretty much a guaranteed lost due to inflation in most countries.
My UK bank branch asked if I wanted a savings account with them last week when I went in. I asked what is the interest…it’s like less than half a percent. Why would I want that
I keep 3 months of expenses and keep it under 10k USD in value so I avoid doing the FBAR as a US citizen. Rest is investments and I’m getting a credit card that will work as my rainy day fund if I need it beyond the 3 months of savings.
Inflation is how the government steal from the people and give to the rich anyways. Ever since the Great Depression governments all over the world has a policy of inflation…
Inflation is very much a tax in my opinion. And you’re right that It impacts the poor way more.
This is why financial education is so important, I keep pushing to have it from HS and university. Technology has made investing and financial planning more accessible to the average person now.
People afraid of losing from investments are not thinking logically. Cash is almost a guaranteed lost. Developed equities markets does go down roughly 3 out of 10 years. But the 7 out of 10 makes it worth it in the long run. Unfortunately many poorer folks don’t understand this and fear the markets and want to find ways to get rich fast.
It’s a easy way to knock down debt. A sneaky way to tax people without them knowing. When 1 trillion in debt is 5% less from inflation, they are doing just fine. We are the suckers feeling it when we pay 5% more on everything we buy.
Most people are living paycheck to paycheck, they couldn’t invest if they wanted to. They essentially have to choose between investment and eating.
Every investment I have seen out there requires gobs of money. More money than most except the rich has to invest. So if you can say invest say 5 USD a week (which is an amount that almost everyone in most countries should be able to give up, some comforts may have to be forgone but it’s doable) that can build up over time to a good portfolio, then I’ll be interested.
Otherwise if I have to somehow come up with say a million NT to even start playing the game, no way I can do it.
I wouldn’t say that. When I grew up my parents weren’t well off (factory worker and social worker), but they invested very modestly. My dad was shocked when he learned how much I could save/invest every month. Admittedly, they were investing when returns were otherworldly, getting almost 20% some years, but they retired with well over a million dollars plus all the appreciation on land they held. It might seem like nothing, but that little bit can bring lots of security later, especially if started early.
of his friends and family. He is happy, laughing and smiling. The strangely he starts to sob and break down in fear.
in with our bank, a Federal Credit Union where “YOU ARE THE F-BOMB SHARE HOLDER”, yeah right.