Sarah was balancing the checkbook when she asked. Not looking up from the calculator.

"Why don't you trust banks?"

I was making coffee. The question hit like cold water.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this." She waved at her phone. "Bitcoin apps. Hardware wallets. You act like Chase is going to steal our money."

I sat down across from her. She finally looked up.

"When's the last time you tried to get cash from the ATM on Sunday at midnight?"

"I don't need cash at midnight."

"But what if you did?"

"I'd wait until Monday."

"Why should you have to wait to use your own money?"

She sighed. The calculator was still in her hand.

"Because that's how banks work. They're not open twenty four seven."

"Your money is there twenty four seven. You just can't get to it."

"It's not just sitting in a vault somewhere."

"Exactly."

Sarah put down the calculator. She was getting that look. The one she gets when I'm being difficult.

"So where is it?"

"Loaned out to other people. At higher rates than they pay you."

"That's how banks make money. That's normal."

"Is it normal that they can freeze your account any time they want?"

"They don't do that unless..."

"Unless what? Unless someone tells them to? Unless a computer flags your spending as weird?"

She was quiet for a minute. Looking at the checkbook.

"This is about control, isn't it."

"It's about ownership. When you put money in a bank, is it still your money?"

"Of course it is."

"Then why do you need their permission to spend it?"

Sarah closed the checkbook. Pushed it away from her.

"I'm not moving our savings to bitcoin."

"I'm not asking you to."

"Then what are you asking?"

I looked at her. My wife of fifteen years. The mother of my kids. The woman who still thinks I'm crazy but married me anyway.

"Just think about who really owns what."

She nodded. Picked up the calculator again.

But she didn't turn it on.