I recently had a disheartening experience at PetCo and it reminded of one of the reasons we are a creating a credit union and not a bank. For those who have not been one – PetCo is a big chain store, one of those places, like your bank, that tries to exude competence. Like with most big chains, their CEO is paid many many millions and their average worker is paid not much more than minimum wage.
So what happened and what is our life lesson? Well I have a dog (2 now but that is another type of blog). Being lazy, every couple of months I would take my lovable11 year old German Shepard – Akita mix into PetCo to get cleaned up. The same way most people in the US do not know the basics about managing their money, I know nothing about dog grooming. So I asked the expert about getting my beautiful dog a hair a little trim along with her standard shampoo. With great confidence the woman says, “Oh no you should cut it short.” “Are you sure?” I ask – “Oh yes that is the only way to go,” she responded. After acquiescing – I came back and I found my beautiful dog with all her hair shorn off except her tail and head, looking a little like a baby rat with the head of a German Shepard, or that ugly cat on Friends. Trust me the before and after is too shocking for a blog.
A recent survey judged that more 70% of Americans are as ignorant about what to do with their finances as I am about dog grooming. I definitely got some bad advice from a big chain that I trusted to be an expert, but at the end of the day, my dog’s hair will grow back. When big banks let down their customers the consequences are much more serious. I can imagine this is what happened to millions of American who lost their savings during the financial crisis. They went to the big banks for financial/investment advice. Then they came back to find that, oh well, they had lost a lot of money and taken on more risk than they thought they had.
As our motto says: Not for Profit – Not for charity – but for service. We will have real financial education seminars – not ones designed to get us more business. They will be the type that tell you real ways to avoid debt – how to save for your car – your house – your retirement without risky short cuts. Ways to prevent your elder parents from being taken advantage of. And yes, they will be bilingual. We believe that CUs are more like the mom and pop grooming salon I should have patronized.