The day before we closed on our house, I went to the bank to pick up the cashier’s check that included our down payment and any leftover closing costs that the seller wasn’t taking care of (I plan to detail all of our closing costs in a post soon. Those pesky hidden costs!).
I went to the bank on my lunch break, just a few minutes from my office. Normally the line is long and I was prepared to wait a while, but that day it was unusually quiet and I walked straight up to a teller.
“Hello, how may I help you today?”
“Could I please get a cashiers check for this amount?”
I hand her a small piece of paper with a number written. Maybe overkill, but I wasn’t about to announce to the rest of the lobby the amount I wanted to withdraw from our savings.
“Sure, just fill out this piece of paper.”
She gives me a cashier’s check withdrawal form. I fill it out with shaky hands, double checking every box, every number, every detail, and then hand it back to the teller.
After a moment, the teller hands me a check. “Here you go, have a great day!”
She hands me a check with more numbers than I’ve ever written in my whole life. In less than five minutes I had withdrawn the money that took me years and years to save. It was almost too easy. I stared at it, partly in awe that I’m an adult with this much money to withdrawal, and partly in horror that I’m about to give all of it away.
After a good long minute, the teller asks if everything is alright.
“Oh yes, it’s fine! I just took out my life savings.”
And then I held onto that check for dear life until I gave it to the lawyer the next day.
Has anyone else experienced that paralyzing jolt of fear/excitement/anxiety when they write a huge check?
Oh I remember that feeling! It is crazy to see the actual amount on the check!
congrats on your new home. I wrote a similar check a few weeks back and I kept checking my bag every hour to make sure I didn’t lose it on the way to the signing later that day. *so paranoid*
SO proud of you Gin!
My lender actually directly wired the money out of my savings account. (My original mortgage was with my credit union where I do my daily banking.) So it didn’t really feel like the money disappeared despite it being such a large amount! I almost wish I’d had to get a cashier’s check instead!
Awww congratulations! I think the first time I purchased my condo I was a bit like whoa but it was so worth it! It’s one of the things we work for in life!!