A Big Step

[affreca]

Bought a rice cooker on Monday. Didn't think I wanted another kitchen appliance, but I still haven't figured out rice. I burn it to much. Rice cooker worked very well with rice for curry. Next is to try to make sushi rice (because it is tasty on its own).

Years ago I got a checking account at Commerce Bank because I wanted something local. My old bank was states away. I choose Commerce because KU had just started a deal with them, and you could use your KU ID as an ATM card. I didn't have a wallet, so the fewest possible cards was a win.

When I came back to Lawrence, I restarted with them because I wanted a local bank (no Navy Fed branches around) and they were familiar. This summer I decided to get a CD with them, to earn more interest. And so when KCCG needed an account, it was obvious where to go.

After 9.5 years, lawnchair and I have decided to get a joint household account. We still get paid in our separate accounts, but now we can both pay into an account each month, and pay out of the joint account. It will make splitting things easier.

Guess where we went? Due to the CD, we qualified for a better account. I could get a security deposit box. At this rate, we'll end up with a mortgage from there. I'm amused the loyalty worked.

Comments

[ninja-tech.livejournal.com]

I have a certain loyalty to local banks. I still have a savings account at the Vermtown FCU. I think I will always keep it. They still know who I am when I walk into their office, even though I only go in there once a year. Talk about hometown benefits!

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

Joint account? - congrats -
Pooch is on my checking account because that is where morguage is paid from and want that to not get confusing if something happens to me - but also because I am the breadwinner. We are talking of a joint household account theory when we move.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Next step is probably a will, but we're commitment shy folk.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

That's one thing I miss about Vermtown. Not to many shop keepers recognize me (bead shop did, even though I'd cut my hair).

Mortgages

[(Anonymous)]

Good to hear you're able to set something aside. From your journals, I know you're both the proverbial voracious readers, but since there are people in Washington and New York who live off of debt slaves, and you mentioned the word mortgage, I'd like to suggest 'sites like http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/ . Mish seems naively libertarian in his beliefs about some solutions, but hard-nosed about what is actually happening economically, versus the desperate reassurances of those who know public "confidence" (wishful thinking) is all that keeps a system of fiat money and investment Ponzi schemes from collapsing like a house of cards. Predicting the timing of the results can't happen because of the policy variables, but if I want to test the truth of an Ed Lazear, I look back at the trend of everyone's reporting and predictions. My reading of the past eight months is that descriptions of problems as "short" and "contained" have overall trended toward long and systemic. Nobody that I read is saying it's shorter and smaller than they thought.
However casually you were speaking of a mortgage, I just wanted to make sure you know about people who are "underwater" on their homes (owing more on a home than it is worth), estimates of the number of years that home prices will continue to fall, and realistic comparisons of the cost of renting vs. buying.
Excuse my running on like this, I panicked. Whoops, we're not allowed to use that word . . . .
Bob