There is a very fine line between loyalty AND stupidity.....

Yet I need to blog a second time today because.... well, lets face it....  when it boils down to a chocoholic's scale of amount of chocolate to ease the stress of the day....  I am at a king-size candy bar kind-of day!!!!  Light stress?  A fun sized taste of chocolate will suffice.  A medium level of stressful day?  A regular sized candy bar.  A mega frustrating stress filled day?  A king sized candy bar.  Anything beyond that is worthy of a walk in admission to the funny farm with the padded rooms and loving jackets that make you hug yourself. Fortunately, I am not ready to sign myself in for the funny farm just yet, but I feel I am getting pretty close.

In my earlier blog, I shared my thoughts, albeit 20/20 in hindsight, about what happens when you give someone "the big boy/girl pill".  You know what I mean, right?  It is handing over the responsibility to someone that needs a serious wake up call.  Little did I know what I would be up against by doing that one thing......

So, I went to a few banking locations to look into minimum requirements, perks, and available services that we (meaning DH and I) currently are looking into.  Obviously, I am not looking for awesome interest rates since... lets face it.... the interest rates are painfully insignificant.  Well, I found a bank that offered more of what we can work with and their service record is exceptional.  Yep, I even took it upon myself to get some feedback from some people I know about their banking institutions.  With this one bank in mind, I meet with a personal banker and discuss what we are looking for.  I got written information on all their services and left with this person's business card with plans to do some serious moving of everything we have from our current bank to that one.  With all the proof that was needed to show DH that this move was a sound financial decision, I headed off to the garage where he works.  Once I got there, I got my ear bent over my efforts.  Apparently, DH has some serious loyalty issues when it comes to things.  He hates change in any sense of the idea.  After flinging his glasses across the garage and some very tense words, he decides to take a few minutes to make his decision and it was obviously not the sound decision that I presented to him.  He decided to close the savings account, put the funds in our checking account, and be done with it.  Yep, no change in institutions to avoid being charged fees every month until we have nothing left to offer. 

With a frustrated sigh that I did as I was asked (to look into another bank for our money), and found the absolute best deal available for our needs... he states without stammering his words that he has been a loyal customer to the same bank for over 20 years and that he will go to the bank and talk to them about this fee situation.  Apparently, he believes he can get special conditions for our accounts because of his loyalty to that bank.  (As I am laughing because crying is not an option) I asked him to keep the information I sought out for him and let my thoughts spew from my mouth that he can have his business partner look over what I acquired and help him see the light since MY OPINION IS NEVER CONSIDERED FOR A VALID ARGUMENT.  Of course, in my blacked out state of letting my mind spew out my thoughts, I believe I recalled asking him how it felt to be overpaying for our car insurance for at least several years beyond what I felt was necessary and that it took for his business partner to convince him to switch companies well after I put in those several years to show him that saving money on car insurance is possible, or when I felt darn near having a stroke due to high blood pressure to convince him that whomever told him a balloon mortgage was a good way to go when he bought the house we live in and never mention that a fixed rate is a far better choice, but if I left it well alone our mortgage payments would have quadrupled since signing the mortgage document if I did not step in and get us a really good fixed rate mortgage that saved us close to $500 a month in payments.  Heck, if I did not look out for the bottom line that he claims that I apparently do not..... we would have been in a far worse state than we are right now.  I have done far more for keeping us out of bankruptcy than I should ever get credit for, but apparently all it takes is for someone else to give the same idea as I have to get it done.  I do remember clearly saying, as I walked out of the garage.....  "being loyal to one business that continues to rake you over the coals is just plain stupidity and being lazy to do something about it makes you a moron that deserves to get the shaft."  I doubt he hear me say that, but once I left and took care of what he wanted done with transferring the closed account funds to our checking account.... I stopped at the local 7-11 convenience mart and bought the king sized candy bar and shouted..... "DIET BE DAMNED!!"

After consuming that 440 calories of fat-ridden chocolate with peanut butter and flossing my mind for the second time.....  I feel better now.  Thanks for reading!