Daily Archives: April 17, 2008

Little Faith In Traditional Banks

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I’m closing my Washington Mutual account soon.

I’ve never had much sympathy for big banks but with the latest turmoils at Wamu, see here, I decided to give my money to a local Credit Union. And why not?

After 4 decades of banks telling the government to not interfere, the latest Wamu problems has pushed them to ask for help after lending money to dubious people. How can I trust a bank that does that? When I worked in real estate I saw how wrong it was pushing loans into most people’s hands when clearly they didn’t have much to show for. If at my little level I can see that, I would expect my bank to be wiser.

I opened an account with a local credit union with a checking account that earns money with the minimum on it being $50. After all, it is my way of saying enough is enough. It is also my way of investing directly into my community.

Our banking system is out of control and after being part of the mess we are in, they don’t need my money. If they are being bailed out because of their mistakes then this will be done without my help. Surely, no one would give me that break if I was in that situation. My, how empowering!

The Shifting Nature Of Quality Of Life

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With the fast pace our society goes through changes, this is the perfect time to reassess what our level of quality of live is and should be.

With gas price skyrocketing, grocery prices going through the roof and the price of living in general going up, instead of complaining and blaming, we can grab this opportunity to make the changes. After all, we are consumers and do decide to pay or not for anything. This is true power. I vote with my wallet.

When my mom was in town last week, she noticed how much our quality of life had changed. We hadn’t noticed that much because prices had crept up gradually but it became noticeable that we didn’t go to as many restaurant we used to.

So in this shifting and changing shoddy economy, what can we do? We can redefine the quality of life we would like. Since we are being pushed to pay more for things, how about choosing the ones that are absolutely necessary. At home, we make sure to never leave lights on and the same with the heater. We are careful to buy healthy food, and as much as possible organic but we do not over eat. In fact, most of the time, when I am hungry I drink a glass of water first. We are normally more thirsty than hungry. I ride my back as much as possible sometimes doing 14 miles in between tutoring sessions.

This helps me redefine what I consider important. This current situation, where consumers wallets are being squeezed should help us define what our new quality of life is. How about working on making sure to acquire the things that are really crucial in our lives. If companies are going to be too greedy, than I will scale back and only buy the tings I really need.

Quality of life for me is really about the friends and family being close by. It’s about sharing good times and communicating. It’s really about choosing what that quality level is and being grateful I am in a position to do so. After all, we do decide what the state of economy is by choosing to buy or not.