A group of friends started talking about area banks vs. credit unions and the pros/cons of using one over the other. One of my hesitations to fully transfer all my business to the credit union is the availability of a safe deposit box at the bank. I was the only one at the table who had one.
Apparently, the safe deposit box is going to be yet another relic of days gone by. Instead of keeping titles, important papers and the family jewels in an off-site location the Millennials I was dining with keep them all at home in a firebox, a lockbox or personal-size safe. Like everything else, it gives them instantaneous 24/7 access to whatever they need, whenever they want it.
My family has had a safe deposit box for my entire life. I never even thought twice about not having one but I’ll admit they have me questioning that choice. For the equivalent of a few years of rent I could own a safe – ostensibly to protect from fire or flood as much to keep the bad guys away. And maybe if I had easy access, I would wear the heirloom jewelry instead of only looking at it every year or so!
Some things are so much a part of our fabric that we don’t even think about them, and for me, renting a safe deposit box was one of those things. Look around your house or organization with new eyes and see if there is an expenditure on automatic pilot that would be safe to discontinue.
