I open my banking app, glance at the numbers, and do a double-take: 

It’s more than I was expecting. A lot more. To be exact, it’s €34,000 more. 

My first thought is, “Wow, the markets must have gone up like crazy over the past few days.” 

But then I realise that can’t be right, there’s no way they’ve gone up that much. Then I see that the whole €34,000 are in cash. 

“Huh. I didn’t sell anything,” I think. 

So I go into my investment account to investigate, and in the communications from the bank I find it: 

There’s a dividend certificate from TK Maxx for that whole amount, which doesn’t make any sense: I’ve only got a few shares, they must have calculated the numbers wrong. 

But if I have the money, and I have a certificate for it, does that mean… I get to keep it? 

I think that’s pretty unlikely but, just in case, I move the money around. Some goes into a savings account, some goes to a different bank. If I need to, I can always move it back. 

I tell my wife, who seems pretty skeptical I’ll get to keep it. I tell a friend, who suggests I buy a small beach house and never look back. I ask my accountant about it, but she doesn’t get back to me immediately. 

Then I tell social media, because why the hell not? I ask if people think the money is mine or not, but it shouldn’t take much to realise I’m joking (even though some people who comment on my post clearly don’t get that…). 

I don’t honestly think the bank won’t realise their mistake and claim the money back, but if it takes a few months… 

Not long after I post about it I check my banking app again, and I immediately see it: they have slapped a huge negative balance on my investment account. I start moving the money to cover it, but the bank doesn't wait for it: less than an hour later the whole amount has been taken back. 

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

I never really thought I was going to keep it, so it doesn’t feel like I lost anything. 

But, if I’m honest, there’s something scary about this whole situation: 

For the few hours I daydreamed about keeping the money, I wasn’t thinking about buying a car, having an expensive holiday, or even going on a wild partying spree. 

What I actually thought I’d do if I got to keep it was… paying off some taxes. 

Damn. Being a grown-up sucks. 

Sometimes you win… 

Once she heard about this episode, a friend told me something like, “Well, that was crap.” And my reply was, “Sometimes you win, and sometimes you have a story to tell.” And I really believe that.

Of course you can tell stories about when things go well, but it’s in the “losses” that you find the most interesting content. They’re more relatable, they’re more likely to teach you something, and (given enough time) they’re also more fun to tell.

So when you’re writing down possible stories (you’re doing that, right??), make sure to put down the mistakes, the fails, the times you were wrong, and the times the world slapped you around. That’s where the gold is. 

I’m still recovering emotionally from “losing” all this money, so I’ll leave it here for this week. 

But if something like this ever happens to you… you don’t have to follow my lead: Go crazy. Splash that cash around. Make some dreams come true.

Maybe it comes back to bite you in the ass, maybe it doesn’t; either way… 

You’ll have some stories to tell 🤘

-Francisco 

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