As I strolled into my primary banking institution a few weeks ago, I asked the guard downstairs to direct me to the people who handle the IRA’s. I was planning on transferring my own IRA over since I have my checking and savings accounts there, and wanted to be able to transfer money over quickly and more easily.
After the guard escorted me upstairs to the section of the bank that handled investments, I was left in a waiting room surrounded by a bunch of glass offices. And after another few minutes, I was greeted by a young man in his mid twenties who led me into his office to discuss my retirement plan. He asked me if I preferred to put my funds into stocks or if I would rather purchase bonds. Since I already have funds invested in a market account with Vanguard, as well as a separate stock account with Charles Schwab, I decided to put a portion of my funds in a 7-month bond.
Now I’m not poor, but I’m certainly no high roller. I don’t have huge bank accounts and massive stock portfolios, but I do have dignity, and as such, believe that I deserve to be treated with respect — regardless of the size of my bank accounts.
I sat there while he pulled up my account and assessed my retirement savings that had been rolled over, and watched as an annoyed look crept up on his face as he told me that he only worked on stock portfolios that had $25,000 or more invested. Now this would have been all well and good had he not looked at me like I was a peasant coming into his office with two sheep to hand over as collateral, but I digress.
I’m an easy person to get along with and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. But let’s remember, shall we, that when your greedy,money-grubbing head honchos spur the onset of a world-wide economic crisis, and part of the future of your business depends on customers like myself trusting their investments with your institution, most people would be prompted to receive potential customers in a much more gratuitous manner.
Nevertheless, I sank my money into their certificate of deposit. But rest assured that I will wait patiently until my money has matured in its 7-month CD, after which I will promptly hand it over to Vanguard to put into stocks — the route I should have taken initially.
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Don’t feel too bad. A CD right now may not be the worse thing. By the time you go to invest, there will be plenty of attractive options. By the way, Vanguard is great but they are expensive.
@ Elementary Finance
I agree that a CD may not be the worse thing right now. But I actually don’t think that Vanguard is that expensive compared to a lot of the mutual and index funds out there. They have a great performance track record and most of their expense ratios are under the average of 1.5% — the Total Stock Market Index Fund is even .15%.