I’ve had enough of the big banks. My personal experience was with WellsFargo, but this story could just as easily apply to any of them. You might think that a 10-plus year relationship with one might cause it to care a little bit about you as a customer, but that is clearly not the case.

I guess I can understand why. After all, I was just one of the millions of customers with a few bucks and an ATM card. There was nothing special about me. Except maybe that, at times in the past, I racked up some impressive Overdraft fees. You might think that would cause them to value me as a customer. Sadly, not even that was enough.

Like I said before, I banked with WellsFargo for more than a decade. Though I initially opened my account with a smaller, regional bank that WellsFargo aquired. WF never did anything spectacularly good or bad, but they were better than the other big bank I had used before (Bank of America) so I stuck with them. Over time, I grew less and less satisfied. Little things changed here and there that made me feel less like a customer and more like just another number.

The final straw came when I needed to call to check my balance one day. I only had to call to check my balance because my debit card wasn’t working at a store when I was trying to make a purchase. I knew I had plenty of money, so something must have been wrong, but I wanted to make sure.

To make a long story short…I had the money and the problem turned out to be something at the store and they were later able to process my transaction. All was well and I went on with my day. Until the next day…when I saw a $2.00 charge on my account for speaking to a banker on the phone- ridiculous! There is no way any business can justify this practice. I don’t care if it is ‘only’ $2.00 and I don’t care how much money they ‘lose’ by providing customer service. I am putting my money in their bank and I will not spend my money in order to talk to a person who works at the bank that is holding my money.

That was it for me and WellsFargo. I closed the account and opened a new one at a local credit union. My experience with the credit union has been a real pleasure. I can call them on the phone and actually talk to someone who works at the branch down the road. Crazy, I know…but it’s true. They even act like they are happy to talk to me. It’s an amazing difference and I strongly recommend you look into a local bank if you are at all unhappy with one of the big, national chains. There is simply no way the big chains can ever match the service of a good local bank. The only advantage I can see from a big bank is a large ATM network…but you can work around that. I’m happy with the change and I’ll never go back.

What do you think? Are there any good reasons to keep you money with a big bank?

For those of you thinking you can start a blog about getting out of debt and get out of debt by getting rich from your blog…stop it! Take the time you were going to spend on the blog and pick up some overtime at work or find a side job utilizing your best skills and get someone to pay you to use those skills in a way that benefits them.

Only after you have exhausted all available hours and opportunities to make some real money should you even consider taking your valuable time and spending it on a blog. The return on investment for blogging is horrible!

Yeah, I know. I’m a blogger and I did the very same thing I’m telling you not to do. Well, that’s why I’m telling you not to do it. I made the same mistakes. I’m still blogging and I still plan to be a blogger for the long term, but my priorities have changed. The blog is now the last thing on my list. I make time for the blog after I’ve put in my regular work hours, done all of the freelance work I can, and spent some time developing contacts and skills that will benefit me in my real work and my real areas of expertise.

It’s nice to read about bloggers who have quit the day job and blog full-time now, but those are the exceptions. It’s okay if you hold on to dreams of getting there some day, but if you are deeply in debt or struggling to get your weight under control, your time is better spent achieving real results in those areas of your life. The blog can be there and it can grow slowly in the background, but you shouldn’t concern yourself with spending lots of time on it. Face it, almost no one will be reading it for quite a while! I know, it hurts, but it’s the truth. Take the time to write for yourself, determine your style and what you really want to write about. Find your voice and take it slow. If you are good at it, you’ll rise to the top some day. Focus on the problems in your life that caused you to start a blog to help solve them. The blog will still be there when you’re done.

Retirement money needed within the next five years should NEVER be in the stock market. Any money needed for any reason at all within the next five years should NEVER be in the stock market.

I’m sorry, but I can’t watch any more ’sad’ stories on the news about people who suddenly can’t retire because the market has dipped. What in the world were they thinking? That the stock market only moves up and they could just sell off some stocks when they need to pay their bills each month?

For as long as I can remember, the conventional wisdom has always been to NOT invest in stocks if you don’t have at least a 5 year time horizon. Were these people being greedy or stupid? I don’t know the answer, but probably a little bit of both.

It’s time to take personal responsibility here. If YOU decided to keep your retirement money in an asset that can go down at any time AND you need that money to live on in the near future, you were either greedy or stupid. I’m sorry, that’s the way it is. Stop blaming the market and stop asking the government to bail you out. Learn the basics of investing in the stock market or don’t do it at all.

If you have money invested and need it within five years, you should put it in cash or CDs. If you don’t, I don’t want to see you on the news crying about your stocks dropping.