Always Financially Follow Up

As a follow up to my discussions about my RESP story earlier this week, I’d like to drive home an important point that we all should do, and that is:

1. Make sure you have everything in writing  or in an electronic traceable format for your records.
2. Always follow up, if you feel something may have gone wrong

I was almost guilty of ignoring the second point. I was hoping all things might work out with the redemption of funds that had not been transferred from the RESP to the correct account (on Tuesday morning, four days after the original transaction). Still, luckily Mrs. C8j had a good nag at me, and I phoned the Mutual Funds Expert at my local branch. When I got his voice mail saying he wouldn’t be back for a week, I had a mild panic attack, but I decided to call the TD Easy line Mutual Fund folks.

The Chap I spoke to (after the first one hung up, I think due to a telephone network issue on his end) was very helpful. After I explained my concerns, he said he’d put me on hold and went to check what happened.

I am not sure how long the wait was, but it was certainly more than 5 minutes. He returned and assured me that the money was “in transit,” and they might be dealing with a backlog of orders, and to the young man’s credit, the money did show up in the correct account a few hours later.

Did my phone call fix anything? It helped my peace of mind, and I felt like I had done something about the problem. What happened during that long period that the helpful Chap from the Easyline Mutual Fund went off to consult? I am not sure. Maybe it was hard to find someone? Perhaps someone found some anomaly, I’ll never know, but I felt better for making that call.

Why did two transactions submitted at the same time go through the system four days apart? Not sure, and that is not true. The first transaction went through completely. The second transaction started at the same time as the first (i.e. the money was out of the Mutual Fund account on Saturday). It was the transfer to the correct savings account that took three extra days? I guess it will remain a mystery to me.

Follow Up ?

It is your money, as Conan’s father said, “Trust in steel.” Everything else, follow up.