Banking on technology

Sometimes I really miss being a kid. Well, okay, I still think of myself as a kid in many ways, but being home reminds me of some really neat aspects of being young. In particular, yesterday I found myself really missing the method that my parents used to teach me how to handle money.

For as far back as I can remember, I've had three different piggy banks sitting on the shelf that runs along the entire length of a wall in my bedroom. Why three? Well, my parents wanted to teach me the 65-25-10 allocation plan for money that I earned/received. Basically, that plan meant that for any money I obtained, I got to use 65% of it for spending, 25% of it went towards a savings account, and 10% of it went to charity. So each of my three piggy banks symbolized a specific role or placement for my money.

Every time I got money for pet-sitting, from relatives, or as an allowance, the first thing I had to do was divide it up appropriately between the three banks. Mom even used to give me my dollar allowance in the form of change so that I could easily just pop a quarter into the savings bank and a dime into the charity bank. A few times a year, we'd deposit the money from my savings bank into a real bank account (my parents told me that I wasn't allowed access to this account until college). And a few times a year, we'd donate the money from my charity bank to a charity or charities of my choice. Meanwhile, I could use the money in my spending bank whenever I wanted, really. Back then I liked to save up for a new My Little Pony or for another Nancy Drew book. :)

I was thinking about all of this yesterday for a few reasons. First, I found my savings piggy bank in my closet yesterday. It's exactly how I remember it: a little ceramic blue building that says "bank" and has a chimney on top and a candy cane on the front (yes, very random). My charity piggy bank was, appropriately, a heart-shaped porcelain dish that said something about love on the front of it. My spending piggy bank varied throughout the years; once I used an actual pig piggy bank, and at some point I had a mini-safe (because I liked the idea of securing my spending money with a code, particularly once my brother was born. I'm so trusting). Second, I got $10 in a card for Christmas, and getting cash once again reminded me of the nice little piggy bank system. I've become so accustomed to allocating my money via computerized database programs and electronic transfers. I kind of miss the tangibility of actually dropping coins into different places.

But anyway, I guess sometimes I really like having some sort of real/physical/tangible representation of an idea. As a kid it worked just fine to have three piggy banks with three different purposes. It's not as feasible now -- and I'd probably need a lot more piggy banks. And while I really like the ease with which I can transfer money and pay bills now, the electronic nature of it all sort of takes away from the realization that I've decided to move money from place A to place B, or paid a bill, or allocated money according to some strategy.

Or maybe I just like symbolism too much. :)