Smart investing starts at home

Many people are upset with the role of the big banks in the financial collapse of 2008, and are unhappy with the customer service, the fees, and the lack of responsibility shown by these huge corporations, with bankers receiving huge bonuses, when the banks had to be bailed out by the United States taxpayers. Fortunately, using free market principles, there are steps you can take to limit the power of these huge banks.

The power you have is to choose to stop banking with them. By depriving these banks of your core deposits (savings accounts, certificates of deposit and IRA accounts) and transaction accounts (such as your checking account), and moving your money to small local banks and credit unions, you can have better customer service, the same convenience, and prevent those huge banks from investing your money in foreign corporations and paying their top executives multi-million dollar bonuses. You can also send a message to these banks that you disapprove of fraudulent practices and want more local involvement in your community.

Since the beginning of 2010, more than ten billion dollars has been removed from deposits in large banks and bank holding companies, and moved to local banks and credit unions. Besides the benefits involved in keeping money available for local projects, such as loans to small businesses, local banks pay local taxes, rather than hiding money in a perpetual shell game and avoiding taxes. This means that your community has more money available for streets, police, fire, schools, and public services such as libraries. Even better, you may find that your property taxes go down!

Send a message to Wall Street: move your money to a local bank and get better customer service, better benefits, lower fees, higher interest rates on deposits, lower credit card and loan rates, and support your own community rather than investing in overseas companies that do not pay United States taxes!