For Wall Street, Greed Wasn’t Good Enough

I’M fairly risk-averse by nature and so have always ignored the offers from my bank to help me “manage my money more successfully.” Put the money in a savings account, earn a bit of interest, but mainly work hard, that’s been my philosophy. Like everyone else, though, I’ve been looking into the small print lately to see just how safe my safe-as-houses account really is.

In Britain, the government will guarantee roughly the first $62,000 in a bank account. If you have more than this saved up then an obvious solution is to spread the money around several accounts. Fine in theory, but this rapidly becomes tedious if you want to protect the savings of a lifetime. So finally I succumbed to the calls from my bank manager. As of the middle of last week I have a man who will give me advice day or night, and crucially can help someone as conservative as me to not suffer while all hell breaks loose.

At our first meeting, one of the questions I raised was how to deal with the money I owe the tax man. Could he recommend a safe yet interest-bearing haven where I could keep the money until Her Majesty’s Government asks for it? He proposed an insurance bond that will mature on the date I have to pay my taxes. Insurance bonds have the nice feature that 90 percent of your money is insured, with no cap, and so even in a disaster I would lose “only” 10 percent. This is how my first venture outside my comfort zone ended with me being invested in American International Group.

When I hear about the potential collapse of A.I.G. shortly thereafter, I contacted my manager. “We are in talks with A.I.G.,” he tells me.

“I want out!” I tell him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/opinion/18wilmott.html?th&emc=th