I received a comment on my blog last week that perplexed me.  Actually it made the feminist in me a little bit nuts. I read it and just couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to think. I had to re-read it.  The comment was this:
<blockquote>The thing that you are missing is that you are a girl and you don`t need/want to have savings (at least not when you are twenty something).</blockquote>
I just kept re-reading and paraphrasing the comment: you're a girl and you don't need to save or don't want to have saving.  The comment just made my mind race. What does this mean? Why wouldn't I want to have savings? What does it matter what my age is? What is it about being a girl that somehow makes this different? I mean, what's going on?

Then I began to wonder if something was lost in translation.  Maybe I was misunderstanding the comment. Maybe I didn't get it.  Or maybe she meant exactly what she said.  But that seemed strange to me.

So today, I asked my tutor about it.  She said, well, she wasn't sure what to make of the comment.  But she explained that given the low salaries in Bulgaria it's not easy for people to save.  She also told me that she read an article this week in a Bulgarian newspaper which stated that only 50% of Bulgarians have bank accounts.

Um, what?! How can that be? I just about lost it. Fifty percent of Bulgarians don't have bank accounts!?!<!--more--> Aside from where they keep their money, I didn't even know how they got paid.  My tutor explained that most Bulgarians get paid their salaries in cash.  Insert me here, wide open eyes and a look of disbelief. Cash, really?!

Yep. Apparently companies are happy to pay their employees in cash.  As, this makes it easier for companies to under-report salaries to the government and they don't have to pay as much in taxes this way.  Oh. Silly me thinking it was just easier to use direct deposit to pay employees. But I guess that if only 50% of Bulgarians have bank accounts the direct deposit route would make distributing salaries that much more difficult.

All of a sudden, I am much happier with the fact that my salary is directly deposited in two pieces one into my Bulgarian bank account and the other part into my American account.  Who knew that this was something I needed to be grateful for? I didn't. Not until today.

But really?! I still can't get my head around the fact that 50% of Bulgarians do not have bank accounts.  This is clearly one of reasons that the economy still functions on cash.  But what else does this tell us? Well I guess that it could also point to the saving habits of Bulgarians, their trust (or lack of trust) in this institution and maybe even their reliance on informal networks for exchange and bartering.

So my tutor explains why she thinks that more Bulgarians do not save.  It has to do with the fact that there are always so many more immediate needs in the lives of Bulgarians and these pressing and immediate needs outweigh the desire (or the ability) to save. It's the trip to the dentist, a gift for a friend's birthday or home repairs that mean there's nothing left to save at the end of the month.

Still, I wondered, what about holidays? Weekends on the Black Sea or a trip to Istanbul, Greece or even Lake Ohrid? The response was that for most people decisions are made to cut else where in the monthly budget in order to be able to afford a holiday.  It's not as if Bulgarians can just put it on their credit cards.  I think it's pretty safe to say that credit cards are even less common than bank accounts.

My reaction to all of this is: depressing, depressing, depressing.  But my tutor was simply matter of fact.  It's not easy to save as a regular Bulgarian.

All of a sudden the comment I received on my blog last week made a little bit more sense--maybe--well at least there was more context for the comment.  I am not sure that I agree with the idea that as a Bulgarian twenty-something girl I wouldn't need to have savings but I can see more clearly now the kind of challenges I would face trying to save as a twenty-something Bulgarian.

But does this mean that I shouldn't try to save? That if I were a Bulgarian twenty-something I should focus my energies on finding a husband with a good salary, an apartment and good connections? Uh, there's something<em> too </em>Jane Austen about this sentiment for words.

Probably this whole thing is more difficult for me to get some sense of because I've had a bank account since I was in elementary school.  In fact, right now I have accounts open at three different banks in the States and one account in Bulgaria.  By all accounts, I guess this makes me a saver.  I never really thought of myself as a saver but today's conversation made it just how clear it is that I am a saver.  It also makes it clear just how little I understand about personal finances in Bulgaria. Sofia