Turn out the lights... the partys over

Well, My last day as a Wamu-lian will be, at the latest, January 29th 2009. 4 years, 5 months 1 week and 4 days after I started with the company.
A lot has changed in those four and a half years, I learned a great deal about banking from both the retail and corporate side. Of course working retail provides the best stories, but the corporate side is really where you learn how the bank works.

Dealing with people and their money is a very challenging situation. There are a lot of people that place money above all else. So when you are responsible for their money, it’s a pretty big deal.

One great story from when I was a teller is the lady who sold some land and deposited about $200,000 into her account. A few weeks after the deposit, she came in and asked the teller if she could see her money. The teller gave her a copy of her account balance, but she wasn’t happy. She said “no, I want to actually see my money.” So, after some confusing discussion between the teller and the customer, the teller told her, we don’t actually keep that much money here on hand. The customer, who was becoming increasingly concerned about the safety of her money, said “oh, well, which branch is my money at?” It took the branch manager sitting down with the customer for over half an hour for her to begin to understand that her $200,000 is not in a little box in the back room, separated from everyone else’s money. She was so alarmed by this that she actually came in a few days later (after we placed a special order extra cash for her) and withdrew all of the money from the sale of her land, in cash.

There is a common but totally misused saying, “money is the root of all evil.” But that is drastically misstated. What it actually says is “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” (1Tim 6:10) Money isn’t bad, money in and of itself is no more evil that a rock, a table or a cup. But it is when love of money becomes more important than people, friends, family then it can lead to all kinds of problems and evil.

I would say our nation, is far more in love with money than anything else. Just look at our economy, and where we are because of the financial industry and because of our love of money. Having $200,000 grand stuffed in your mattress will only make you paranoid, fearful and more distant from everyone while you try to protect your money.

So, looking for a new job in a new industry and transitioning from one chapter to the next, what I have learned and am continually working on is just this: Instead of using people and loving money, love people and use money...

But whatever you do, don’t wire your money to Nigeria.... and I promise, you didn’t win the Foreign lottery. No, really, you didnt win.