The world is a very colorful place with many interesting people in it. I didn’t learn how interesting my colleague was until I was trying to clarify a bit about a finance.
I was trying to explain about counter-party risk to Martin when I received a counter intuitive answer. We were discussing about the Lehmann Brothers collapse.
It must have been an unlucky day for people who had invested in Lehmann Brothers just before their collapse. While trying to drive the point home I suggested what would happen if you had lent or invested 1000 EUR in Lehmanns. The response that came back was a lecture about greedy people.
If that action had been done intentionally in order to throw me off my guard and win the argument it could have worked. What was more surprising was came next.
Me So you basically store your money in a coffee can or under your mattress?
Him Yup.
It was a pretty odd answer and most certainly an outlier. Well, yes and no. Martin also knows an attorney who each payday cashes his paycheck and takes every single penny out of the bank. The reasoning behind this is that he doesn’t want to be tracked as to what he does.
I could only imagine that this may cause more scrutiny by public officials should they ever take a closer look into his situation but that was my view.