A good reason for being “underbanked” is that being banked means creating a much more abstract relationship with your money.  It appears on a screen, or by a text, subject to many words in legal agreements, incurring penalties magically, and disappearing for days after you bring it physically to the bank or ATM.

I was delighted to see Henry Holtzman and his band at my alma mater, the MIT Media Lab, created an antidote: the Proverbial Wallet.  A set of three leather wallets that, through a Bluetooth connection with your mobile phone, physically respond to virtual – but very real – financial situations.  One vibrates in your pocket whenever your bank makes a transaction: a good reminder that your credit card is linked to real, cold cash (or warning you about fraudulent activity).  Another one actually resists being opened – with a stiff hinge – if your balance is low, encouraging you to spend less when you have less.  The third actually swells (with pride, it seems) if your balance increases.

While you might think this is just a fun gimmick, or just silly, I think the Proverbial Wallets help remind us about the physical importance of our financial lives, and allow for the obvious benefits of electronic payments, while taking advantage of our physical interaction with our money.

The last one, especially, might be important: for many people, when we have a little more cash, there is a strong and deep urge to show it off.  We buy nicer clothes, a nice watch, or car, or TV – largely to show we’re doing well.  Most of these purchases are in depreciating assets.  I have been trying to find a way to physically display our purchasing an appreciating asset: whether FDIC-insured savings, a CD, stocks or bonds.  It is important all people have some of those assets for a variety of reasons, but those assets don’t address my need to SHOW I’m doing better.  They are invisible, abstract, until liquidated.

Proverbial Wallets from John Kestner on Vimeo.