Penny Power

I've got a jar containing some amount of money sitting on my desk. It's the accumulated sum of the money I've found in various places over a period of time that I haven't kept track of. Most of the inhabitants of my jar are pennies, but there are a good number of nickles and dimes in there, too, as well as a couple of one dollar bills.

I find money all over the place: on the ground, in parking lots, sitting in the bottom of the washing machines where I live, even in the flood control channels that pass beneath my city where I do pigeon control work for the city. I pick it all up, wash it off (no telling where it has been or in what; yes, the dollars, too) and deposit it in my jar. But what to do with that money?

I've decided to put it to work in my investments. Discarded, the money exits the economy and does nothing. Recovered by me and placed in a jar, it still does nothing (other than pad my net worth a tiny bit). But if I put it to work in an investment of some kind, it will return to circulation within the global economy and do good for people again.

At the end of each year, that's what I'll do with the money in this jar. I have shares in a particular mutual fund that currently yields better than 20% annually, and because it is a no-load fund with no minimum for subsequent purchases by mail, it is the perfect place for this small sum to go.

Such tiny amounts are hard to be excited about, or to get people excited about, I'll admit. But keep this in mind the next time you walk past a penny on the ground: it's free. You just need to pick it up.