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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2gcW2Uv:
ugh.
forever ago, my brother in law, not the farm one, we didn’t know him yet, the other one, the Army one, got out of the Army briefly, and worked for AG Edwards as a financial planner. He did this for like. A year. Less. I don’t remember.
During that time I was a waitress. I had the highest income I’ve ever had in my life. To help him out, I sent money for him to invest.
AG Edwards, naturally, is gone. They got bought by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is unilaterally reprehensible. But I have no idea where my money is, or how to get it. They send me statements, but there’s really not any good way of getting in touch with them on those statements? Just a 1-800 number, which I called once, and i talked briefly to a guy who was not aware of any of the details of my account, and I just.
I have just sort of thrown up my hands and ignored it for years, on the rationale that if I can’t touch the money, I can’t spend it by accident, so it’s better than no savings for retirement. But it’s not really earning anything either, so. I mean. That’s really stupid. (I mean. It is. 4.7% this year, I guess. Sure. Okay. But like. It’s not a lot.)
A while back I heard some kerfuffle about Wells Fargo doing something shady and racist, I think. I don’t really remember, but I had intended for that to be the last straw. But again, I didn’t know how to get at the account, and I got distracted by who knows what.
But then I just saw another post about how involved Wells Fargo is in investments that are making the Dakota Access Pipeline go forward, and i thought, okay, this time, for real, that’s the last straw. I can’t condone that and i have to really actually do something now.
So I’ve been trying to figure out how to close that account, and finally I created an online profile with them, and sent them a goddamn email, because nowhere on their site is there a “liquidate my assets and close my account”, or even a less-unfriendly “roll over my IRA” because it looks like now i have two IRAs, since i started using Betterment last year at my dude’s insistence.
And like. Dude googled “how do i close my wells fargo account” and Google is just seethingly alive with horror stories about Wells Fargo.
So ah. There you have it, I guess.
It’s a good thing I’m not rich because I do not know how to have money. I hope they’re not mean to me when they email back. I mean, I didn’t mention why I was closing my accounts now, I didn’t figure they needed to know that. I’ll send them a nice succinct note about it on my way out, once I already have my money. But oh holy shit. They have so many complaints against them.
Fortunately, my account is so tiny that they surely won’t bother with any chicanery.
But. I am so fried. I adulted a lot. That was hard.
(Now dude is going through the other IRA materials and looking at where those stocks are invested and like. oh god. i don’t. Please don’t even tell me or I’ll wind up just giving away what little money I have and running out into the street to lie down and die. All money is polluted but money also buys food and I don’t want to starve when I’m too old to work. My parents are the last generation that got to retire. I won’t get to retire, I’m already resigned to that– not retire while I’m still spry and healthy, and tour the world and play with grandbabies and what not. I could never even afford babies, I won’t have grandbabies, it’s just about too late now, and I certainly won’t take up a hobby. I will work until I am too old to do so anymore, that is what my generation has to look forward to. That’s just how it goes, for us. I just want to know that when I can’t go to work anymore I’ll be able to afford to buy food. That’s the kind of retirement I’m saving for.)
(I will owe capital gains tax if I get this account liquidated. That is hilarious, because I am actually also below the ridiculously low poverty threshhold.)
(Did I ever post on here about Dude’s work situation? No? He makes a zillion times more money than I do but is in an industry where nobody over 45 can get a job, so he’s uncomfortably counting down the few years he has left of lucrative employment before he’s pretty sure he’ll be unhireable. So people are like “oh he’s your sugar daddy” and I’m like no, I put him through college and he’s returning the favor by trying to sock away as much as he can for our retirement while he can get it. We’re in this together. It’s not a bright future but it’s comfortable at the moment. I can currently afford to work for a combination of peanuts and actually just getting paid in food, and when his work dries up I’ll hopefully have gotten the farm business off the ground enough that I can get paid in money, and if not, I’ll have to think of something else. That’s just the deal.)
(Anyway. About that anxiety. I’m sort of burned-out at the moment, hence the wordvomit.)
ugh.
forever ago, my brother in law, not the farm one, we didn’t know him yet, the other one, the Army one, got out of the Army briefly, and worked for AG Edwards as a financial planner. He did this for like. A year. Less. I don’t remember.
During that time I was a waitress. I had the highest income I’ve ever had in my life. To help him out, I sent money for him to invest.
AG Edwards, naturally, is gone. They got bought by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is unilaterally reprehensible. But I have no idea where my money is, or how to get it. They send me statements, but there’s really not any good way of getting in touch with them on those statements? Just a 1-800 number, which I called once, and i talked briefly to a guy who was not aware of any of the details of my account, and I just.
I have just sort of thrown up my hands and ignored it for years, on the rationale that if I can’t touch the money, I can’t spend it by accident, so it’s better than no savings for retirement. But it’s not really earning anything either, so. I mean. That’s really stupid. (I mean. It is. 4.7% this year, I guess. Sure. Okay. But like. It’s not a lot.)
A while back I heard some kerfuffle about Wells Fargo doing something shady and racist, I think. I don’t really remember, but I had intended for that to be the last straw. But again, I didn’t know how to get at the account, and I got distracted by who knows what.
But then I just saw another post about how involved Wells Fargo is in investments that are making the Dakota Access Pipeline go forward, and i thought, okay, this time, for real, that’s the last straw. I can’t condone that and i have to really actually do something now.
So I’ve been trying to figure out how to close that account, and finally I created an online profile with them, and sent them a goddamn email, because nowhere on their site is there a “liquidate my assets and close my account”, or even a less-unfriendly “roll over my IRA” because it looks like now i have two IRAs, since i started using Betterment last year at my dude’s insistence.
And like. Dude googled “how do i close my wells fargo account” and Google is just seethingly alive with horror stories about Wells Fargo.
So ah. There you have it, I guess.
It’s a good thing I’m not rich because I do not know how to have money. I hope they’re not mean to me when they email back. I mean, I didn’t mention why I was closing my accounts now, I didn’t figure they needed to know that. I’ll send them a nice succinct note about it on my way out, once I already have my money. But oh holy shit. They have so many complaints against them.
Fortunately, my account is so tiny that they surely won’t bother with any chicanery.
But. I am so fried. I adulted a lot. That was hard.
(Now dude is going through the other IRA materials and looking at where those stocks are invested and like. oh god. i don’t. Please don’t even tell me or I’ll wind up just giving away what little money I have and running out into the street to lie down and die. All money is polluted but money also buys food and I don’t want to starve when I’m too old to work. My parents are the last generation that got to retire. I won’t get to retire, I’m already resigned to that– not retire while I’m still spry and healthy, and tour the world and play with grandbabies and what not. I could never even afford babies, I won’t have grandbabies, it’s just about too late now, and I certainly won’t take up a hobby. I will work until I am too old to do so anymore, that is what my generation has to look forward to. That’s just how it goes, for us. I just want to know that when I can’t go to work anymore I’ll be able to afford to buy food. That’s the kind of retirement I’m saving for.)
(I will owe capital gains tax if I get this account liquidated. That is hilarious, because I am actually also below the ridiculously low poverty threshhold.)
(Did I ever post on here about Dude’s work situation? No? He makes a zillion times more money than I do but is in an industry where nobody over 45 can get a job, so he’s uncomfortably counting down the few years he has left of lucrative employment before he’s pretty sure he’ll be unhireable. So people are like “oh he’s your sugar daddy” and I’m like no, I put him through college and he’s returning the favor by trying to sock away as much as he can for our retirement while he can get it. We’re in this together. It’s not a bright future but it’s comfortable at the moment. I can currently afford to work for a combination of peanuts and actually just getting paid in food, and when his work dries up I’ll hopefully have gotten the farm business off the ground enough that I can get paid in money, and if not, I’ll have to think of something else. That’s just the deal.)
(Anyway. About that anxiety. I’m sort of burned-out at the moment, hence the wordvomit.)
no subject
Date: 2016-11-29 02:58 am (UTC)I honestly thought one of my parents must have closed it out years ago, but just recently they sent me some kind of statement/offer for some kind of insurance, so apparently the account still exists? But I've forgotten my login information for their website and have no idea how to get it back, and it's all just... so much trouble... I've lived without that money for so long, who even knows how much it is? Etc.
Keep us updated about how your fight goes! Maybe it'll convince me to get off my own butt and go figure out my own lost account - but even if not, at least you'll have taken something away from Wells Fargo!