How many times have your parents said, “watching TV isn’t going to make you rich.” Well, hopefully our show is doing something to change that. But that’s beside the point of today’s story.
This is the story of someone discovering that there actually can be money in TV. But not in watching it. Or staring in it. This is the story of someone literally finding money in a TV. As in, a recycled TV set.
More than 3 decades ago, a 68-year-old man gave his friend his old TV. This year, the friend finally upgraded his set and sent the old television to a recycling plant. What neither man knew or remembered was that hidden in that big box was another box: a cash box.
Upon opening the cash box, recyclers discovered stacks of $50 bills. The cash total? More than $100,000. The honest recycling staff called authorities, who were able to successfully find the original owner and reunite him with his savings.
What’s the lesson here? Don’t hide money in a TV and forget about it and give it to a friend and throw it away? Sure. But good luck finding application for that lesson. So here’s another: open a savings account, for crying out loud! A bank or credit union is an excellent place to store your savings. They’re even insured by a government agency called the FDIC.
For more about choosing a financial institution, check out our episode, “Take it to the Bank!”