Me and My Money

Where is Dad’s money going?...

Posted November 25, 2011
Originally Published May 27, 2010

Solving a financial mystery last week inspired me to divert from my standard Q & A format. Assisting my detecting were Car 20 of A-1 Taxi and the manager of the local beer store.

Here’s the story. My dear father lives in a lovely retirement home near me. I manage his accounts and over the past few months have noticed double transactions at The Beer Store. Sometimes identical amounts on the same day and sometimes different amounts, also the same day.

Now my Dad likes his suds but not that much. I assumed (financial rule #1 -- never assume) that he bought a case occasionally for my daughter and son-in-law who often run errands for him. I figured one of them drove him to the store and he purchased a thank you gift.

You’d think he would have made a single transaction but my father always liked to be well-organized financially and I assumed (see financial rule #1 above) that he wanted to keep purchases for himself separate.

In passing, I joked to my daughter that they were being paid for errand-running with beer. “Oh no”, said she. Only once did he buy them a 6-pack when he was invited to dinner at their house. Hmmm.

My Dad likes to acknowledge those who help him and so I next assumed (see rule above) that he might be buying a gift for the taxi driver if it was often the same person. But, then again, mistakes happen at the cashier and we’ve all heard tales about the hijacking of debit and credit card terminals.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t ask my father first for an explanation. I did. Dad didn’t have an answer for the double transactions and noted sternly that he wasn’t in the habit of buying two lots of beer in two transactions on the same day. Hmmm.

I confess I attributed the whole thing to a memory lapse. Dad is nearly 90 and like most people his age his memory, while quite sharp, isn’t quite what it used to be. Perhaps he meant to buy a couple of six-packs, forgot and returned the same day for the second. Nonetheless, just to be sure, I called The Beer Store and Karen, the helpful manager, tried her best but couldn’t explain it either. “Why not contact the taxi company?” she offered.

Sarah at the taxi company told me Dad had been most recently picked up at 4:15 pm. She doubted he would be purchasing beer as a gift to a faithful driver since hers were from the Punjab and didn’t drink. She then called Car 20 and discovered that a Beer Store employee had loaded a case into the taxi trunk and helped Dad set his folded walker on top. One case, not two.

Back to Karen. She dug through store transactions on the most recent day of the double purchases and found one but not both amounts. How odd. There it was right on the on-line statement, two purchases back to back. Not only that but I found similar events at least once a month going back four months, amounts that corresponded to a six-pack plus a case or two six-packs.

Finally the Eureka! “The days you are giving me are all Mondays,” said Karen. That didn’t mean anything to me until she mentioned that her bank didn’t post late Friday or Saturday purchases until Monday. And there it was. A very simple explanation but one that took the better part of a morning.

As soon as I told my father about the discovery and the delayed posting of weekend purchases he said, “I know that. Why didn’t you ask me?”

It just goes to show that when it comes to money we all end up scratching our heads sometimes.

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