I have been doing a lot of walking lately as part of reaching my goal of a healthy body at a healthy weight. I aspire to walk 10,000 steps, on average, each day over every seven-day period. Some days I walk as many as 14,000 steps, while on other days I log only about 6,000 steps. It really depends on work, the weather, and the day of the week. The weekends usually bring big walking and hiking opportunities. On many of my walks I find coins lying on the ground—sometimes nickels, dimes, and quarters, but by far the most common coins I spot are pennies. Each time I see one, I think about Abby, whom I discovered last year from her website, and had a chance to meet in person with her husband.
I blatantly borrowed Abby’s graphic from her website.
Camping at the Lake Pleasant State Park last week, I picked up nearly a dollar in change from the streets, parking lots, and campsite areas where we stayed. It got me thinking about the whole concept of taking the time to find pennies and actually stopping to bend down and pick them up.
How rich or out of shape does one have to be to not pick up money from the ground? On a karmic level, what kind of message are you sending out to the universe if you don’t grab money freely offered to you?
For me, it means I have to stop, bend my 6-foot-plus body, and snatch up the coin. Is it really worth it?
Banks don’t want your money (what those fat cats on Wall Street won’t tell you)
I don’t know why, but I like to sneak in the phrase “those fat cats on Wall Street” whenever I can. Heck it’s my blog and as you can see the writing does tend to go in many different directions. However, I digress…
Yes that’s right, banks don’t want your loose change. They have no problem taking a couple dollars in coins, however if you walk into a branch with a five-gallon water bottle or bucket of loose change, forget it! They will kindly offer to provide you coin wrappers so that you can count the coins into their respective rolls, and then write your name, address, phone number, and account number on the wrapper just in case you cheat them out of a penny. They need to know who to send the goons after to collect their shortage.
But wait, other options are even worse. You can take your coins into the local supermarket to a vending machine that will gobble all those loose coins and give you a credit. You can get a credit on today’s groceries or apply it to various gift cards with retailers. All they want is a small nine to ten percent of your “hard-earned bending over to reach the ground” money. Yep, the price of convenience is nine to ten percent if we use that method of redemption.
It seems nobody wants our money. I am refusing on principle to have ten percent of my pennies taken off the top of my stash. Nobody in retail wants me to count out hundreds of pennies at the counter, and I am too lazy to roll them myself. Today I am using up the nickels, dimes, and quarters as quickly as I can for small purchases by providing exact change.
I think that, as a social experiment, I will give a huge bag of pennies to a homeless person asking for money at a street corner to see his or her reaction to the gift. I may actually drive to a spot where I can observe from a distance to determine what the individual will do with the money. Will he refuse the money and consider it an insult? Will he take the time to roll the pennies into coin wrappers and take them to the bank? Would the banks even accept the pennies if the person doesn’t have an account with them? (ARB needs to weigh in here to explain these banking rules.)
Is it really worth the time to pick up pennies?
The number crunching part of my personality is coming out. Is there an ROI on picking up pennies? I will spare you the math and simply answer, “YES.” You need to make a salary of $106,975 to break even on picking up a penny. This is assuming you pay 30% in tax on your 1.4 cents per minute rate, netting you one penny per second take home pay.
I am making a big assumption that it takes only one second to reach down and pick up a penny. For the slower and less experienced “penny pinching picker-uppers” (PPPu’s) out there: your actual results may vary. This means that you are gaining no incremental benefit of income by picking up pennies when you make over $106,975—assuming you can work more hours and receive additional pay from your employer.
If you can’t work more hours for more pay and you happen to be walking on a break from work, then that is purely found money, and it’s tax free!
Maybe you are so stinking rich that you can’t waste precious moments thinking about the task of picking up money. You could be dreaming up the next Dot Bomb business that will make you millions at the IPO. I wonder if Warren Buffet picks up pennies?
Is it really worth the strain on the body to pick up pennies?
It depends on your age, health, and motivation.
From a perspective of exercise, for me it’s worthwhile. I am walking along, day dreaming, looking at the scenery when suddenly a shiny object on the ground catches my eye. (BTW, I am not actually walking heads down all the time looking for money.)
I quickly approach the item in question (lest someone gets there first), identify it is a coin, stop, do a quick stretch to the ground, breaking up the cadence of my walk to be rewarded with currency. How many gym rats, weight lifters, or yoga practitioners have found money while exercising? To me this is a quick diversion to stretch my muscles differently, and then continue on my walk. Cross-training, if you will.
Is it bad juju or karma to refuse to pick up pennies?
What are we telling the universe when we don’t take the time to pick up money from the ground? Are we saying that mere pennies are not worth our time?
If you believe in karma, you may believe that not picking up pennies has karmic repercussions. When a person doesn’t pick up pennies, it sends a message to the universe: the person couldn’t care less about money. In response, the universe may not provide the opportunity to pick up the $100 bill that might be around the corner. Heck, the universe may resolve that a pre-IPO company is going to fail since the founder who can’t pick up change is obviously not interested in money, even in the smallest penny form.
We could be messing around with “The Law of Attraction.”
What is the Law of Attraction?
The Law of Attraction can be understood by understanding that ‘like attracts like.’ What this means is that whether we realize it or not, we are responsible for bringing both positive and negative influences into our lives. A key part of the Law of Attraction is understanding that where you place your focus can have an intense impact on what happens to you. – http://www.thelawofattraction.com/
Say or believe what you want about this “law,” I have found that the more open I am, and when I apply myself in a particular area of interest, things begin to manifest in ways I would have never expected.
Perhaps, from a Law of Attraction perspective, picking up pennies will draw more money to you in the future? Think about how reading FI and FIRE websites—putting energy toward improving your finances, budgeting, saving, and investing—has attracted like-minded people to you. Perhaps you are now engaging in regular discussions about finances and sharing your dreams of financial independence and early retirement.
My picking-up-pennies practice
I pick up pennies from the perspective of stretching my body and announcing to the universe that I will not turn down money. Having money helps me achieve my financial goals and gives me a sense of security.
Walking 10,000 steps a day works out to about five miles of fresh air. I don’t spend my time actively looking for spare change; I would rather enjoy the walking experience. Hiking on the trails for five years in Sedona, I have found a total of about fifty cents. The bulk of my cash haul is from walking along streets, sidewalks, and parking lots.
I have to admit I did go through a snobbish period several years back when we first became FI. I felt it wasn’t worth the time or energy to bend over for money. I have since changed my perspective, not wanting to mess with karma or the Law of Attraction, and using the idea of stretching to the ground as an added exercise benefit. For some strange reason, the pennies keep finding their way to my path. Go figure!
***
Abigail @ipickuppennies says
Aw shucks, thanks for the mention! And congrats on all those steps!
For the record, Coinstar will let you choose certain GCs for 100% of the money you pour in. Could save you the hassle of wrapping them. Then whenever you buy something with the gift card, put that amount in savings. An extra step, sure, but so is wrapping coins and putting your account number on them.
Bryan says
Abby,
From the first day I found your site, I have liked the name. 🙂
I will have to check the Coinstar options where I can get 100% on my money. If Starbucks is one, that will help fuel my coffee addictions. Here’s hoping. That will also keep me from rolling all those darn pennies.
Take care,
Bryan
ARB says
Hey guys, what’s up? Just mind in’ my own business, browsing the web, saw I was drafted into answering a banking question, stuff like that.
To answer your question, TECHNICALLY, most banks require you to have an account in order to exchange money. This is required for AML (Anti-Money Laundering for those of you not in banking). That said, for small amounts, this is never enforced. Especially if rolled coin is NOT involved (walk into any bank with a dollar and ask for four quarters. You’ll get it, regardless of whether you have an account or not). With rolled coin, it’s only really quarter rolls and large amounts of them that might trigger an issue. We tend to be pretty good detecting when a customer-wrapped roll isn’t good, though.
I had a person once hand me a quarter roll with only about eight bucks and change in there. I knew there was only eight bucks and change because I looked at it; I didn’t even have pick it up to know it. I told the guy “This isn’t a full roll.” No apologies, no customer servicey crap, no nothing. He insisted I was wrong, so I took out a full bank roll, showed him the size difference, and simply repeated “This isn’t a full roll.”
Thug Life Teller, I know.
The reason banks don’t want your loose change–and you’re completely right; we DON’T want it–is because we have nowhere to put it. The teller can’t keep heaps of loose change in their box, and there’s no room in the vault to put it. Yes, you read that right, the bank vault of the real world is significantly smaller than the bank vault of Hollywood (“bank safe” is a more accurate term; I’ve worked in banks that didn’t even have vaults!). We can’t ship out mountains of loose coin; the armored car companies will not accept them, and there simply is no time for us to roll them ourselves. It’s simply not feasible in the real world, despite some customers’ huffy claims of “that’s not my problem!” and “isn’t that your job!?” (yes it is and no it’s not).
And even with writing your account number on the roll thing, the issue is that the tellers must prove to the penny each night and can get in trouble for showing differences. And not just shortages either. Overages are just as bad. That’s right., a teller can get in trouble for having TOO MUCH money at the end of the day. I wish I had “too much” money in my account.
Anyhoo, I hope that answers your questions (as well as the questions you didn’t have and didn’t want answers to. Oh, check out the years on those pennies you pick up. Pre-1982 pennies were made of copper, and are more valuable than the zinc pennies of today. And if you pick up a 1943 steel penny? I believe those are worth something.
Now don’t strain yourself with that six figure penny picking job, Bryan!
Sincerely,
ARB–Angry Retail Banker
Bryan says
Hey ARB,
Thanks for the informative explanation about AML and the other issues with banks receiving lose change. I also had no idea that the vaults were as small as you say. Yes, I have been watching too many movies thinking that these rooms must be large. That also makes sense that the armored car service does not want to pickup and transport change.
Reading your response reinforces my opinion of the trend that we are becoming a cashless society. It takes a lot of planning to have enough cash and coins for our everyday purchases. Using a check, debit or credit card simplifies the physical aspect of carrying money. I used to use my credit or debit cards for everything until I became super focused on three categories of our spending: dining, entertainment, and groceries. With those expense categories we went back to a cash envelope system which helped us control our spending. We would throw the lose change into a big jar and let it accumulate. Hence, how we arrived at the change other then picking up pennies.
The good news is I have gotten rid of all my lose change over the last month. I will try using our debit card to pay for our 3 cash categories going forward to see if we can stick to our budget. This should be interesting.
Take care,
Bryan