Is One of Life’s Simple Pleasures Gone?  

  The “piggy bank” has long been a part of western culture. For hundreds of years it has been used as a way to teach children the importance of saving money. Is this coming to an end? For me, here in Switzerland it already has!    

Is a time honoured way of saving and teaching how to save now gone? image pixiby.com

The Way it Was Before Something Shocking Happened!

  For as long as I can remember, every day when I arrived home from work I would “clean” the change out of my wallet. I’d keep a few coins for parking etc… and the rest I would put into a jar. I’d keep doing this for a year or two and then finally the time would come to roll up the coins and take them to the bank. The last time I did this I deposited just under $1’000!   

It was always exciting to dump all of the coins out on the table and then roll them up before heading off to the bank.

What Has This Method of Saving Accomplished Over The Years?  

• Saved with my then girlfriend to get married!
• Saved for vacations! 
• I taught my son to do it and have deposited over $2000 in his account over the years!

This "piggy bank" was a gift to my son when he was born. It is no longer in use!

What has Changed (no pun intended)?

    The last time we went to the bank to deposit about $1,000 of change saved up over several years we were shocked when the bank told us that they would charge us 20% to make the deposit! 20%! Can you believe that? That means we would lose $200.00 even though WE did the work of rolling the sorted coins!

In a state of shock and disbelief  we brought our rolled up coins home, dumped them back in the jar and have proceeded to take out scoops at a time in order to pay for things! It’s very annoying both for us and for the shop keepers!  

This is all that's left of the our once filled "piggy bank". It's going to be tough spending such small change!

In Our Case The Piggy Bank is Dead!  

 Yes, for us the piggy bank has died and I’m sad. I’ll miss it!  "They" have stolen a part of culture, a good method of saving, and good clean fun!

  What do You Think?  

• Do you use a piggy bank?  
• Do you train your children to use one? 
• Is this another sign of even bigger changes in the banking industry?    

I hope that you found this story about the death of the piggy bank interesting!

Until next time,

@kus-knee (The Old Dog)

Remember, I reward the best comment(s) on each of my posts with my "The Old Dog is Throwing You a Bone" program! So please re-steem and follow so that we can spread the wealth!