All of you thought of the movie and on the verge of 2025 we’re old school for even thinking that. The best line, “earmuffs.”
You can’t automate all of your payments. And some people have a difficult time automating when they haven’t gotten comfortable with the intangible. Sometimes it takes a gradual process to eliminate paper bills that you physically hold and see to write an actual check. Once you have developed a system and habit of checking your accounts online or through an app, you develop an innate pulse on the incoming and outgoing funds in your accounts with the tangible visualizations built in your head knowing where everything is.
A few years ago, I was waiting for a connecting flight in the Denver airport and overheard two college-aged girls returning from spring break opining check writing having to Google how to do this.
Writing checks is old school but we still need to do it until something else completely replaces it. Right now, there isn’t any “thing” or platform that does.
Contractors
After selling our house in California, we needed a documented list of all improvements (capital) we made on that house to reduce the capital gains tax beyond the federal exclusion. California also has the highest capital gains tax rate up to 14.4%. On the surface, the number of improvements seemed small to us since we both worked (a lot) during those years. No remodeling, no additions but occasional landscaping and small improvement projects that did add up significantly over 13 years. My husband asked me how I remembered all the projects and how much we spent. I paid all the contractors, but I also filed every invoice or check copy in a portable trunk (for fire evacuations).
Few home contractors use digital payments. If they do, they often pass the credit card fee onto you, especially if they are a solo or small company. Zelle and Venmo are sometimes used by contractors, but they are not designed for business use with fees and complicated reporting.
It’s another reason why the homebuilding industry is difficult to automate. Contractors need to be paid often and routinely. When I worked in homebuilding, I had to take over the weekly subcontractor check run after our Accounts Payable employee’s husband died unexpectantly. Having never done it, I struggled through it because missing that deadline was highly consequential.
We recently had a garage door opener replaced. Apparently, when they begin to fail (after 30 years) they randomly open on their own. Straight out of bed, my husband asked why I left the garage door open all night. Knowing full well that I had not, I immediately checked our camaras and found the moment it mysteriously opened by itself which it continued to randomly do.
Yesterday, he got me up again to investigate why there was a lot of water dripping from the basement ceiling. In our groggy, un-caffeinated minds, we think it’s a frozen pipe because the temperatures had turned artic overnight. When in fact after consuming caffeine along with some critical thinking, we figured out it was the washing machine that was leaking.
Both contractors were quick to respond, correctly diagnosed and fixed the issues. I paid them with a check before they left and still file the invoices for future reference because, really, who knows what the housing market and taxes will look like in the future.
Small Business
Professional services like attorneys, CPA firms or personal services like pet sitting don’t have high volume transactions to justify the credit card fees. So, they often require a check payment. Hair salons do accept credit card payments but there is a noticeable increase in their rates.
I’ve had several pieces of furniture reupholstered including all our outdoor furniture. Both shops did a fantastic job with material that lasts far longer than the original. I paid by check.
Check payments for small businesses is more prevalent than you may think.
Eddison Park, Chicago business owner Marianne Mandel loses $30K to check washing scam – ABC7 Chicago
Government
This past year, I’ve been a “ghost” executor of my husband’s great aunt’s estate assisting my father-in-law who is the named executor. The entire undertaking is a topic for another time since we still are not done. I found the larger companies had a modernized verification process offering electronic payments of direct deposit and wire transfer. Anything originating from the federal or state governments and their subcontractors did not. We waited months for checks in the mail.
Gifts
Going back even further to Seinfeld days of Jerry cashing his grandma’s birthday checks, you would think gift giving with a check would also be an outdated practice. But it isn’t. It remains a prevalent birthday gift for grandchildren, wedding gift and donation method.
Safeguards
- Everyone should have unwashable ink pens to write checks.
- Track large checks using a USPS issued tracking number or UPS / FedEx
- Mail checks inside the post office. Don’t leave it in your mailbox or in an outside blue depository.
- My Mom now gives us birthday, anniversary and Christmas gifts when we all get together.
- 8 Things You Should Know If You Deposit More Than $10K Into Your Checking Account
The estate attorney for his great aunt highly advised us to get incoming wire instructions from all the beneficiaries in various states. He said that distributing and depositing high dollar checks has become a very challenging endeavor. We set-up wire transfers for everything we could.
There is an element of old school (tradition) in all of us whether we admit to it or not. Whatever that is, it keeps the good we found in our past alive.
Featured Image – front yard when we decided to move to Chicago
Finished before we put it on the market. We designed it ourselves.