Taking the hard line on savings

This is just too hard to resist posting about: the Japanese have invented an exploding piggy bank.

The "Savings Bomb," which goes on sale in Japan next week, "explodes" and scatters coins if users fail to save for a long time, toy manufacturer TOMY Co Ltd said Thursday. The battery-powered toy -- designed as a cartoon-style, ball-shaped black bomb with a skull and crossbones logo -- lights up, makes a noise, shakes violently and scatters coins if it is not topped up for a long time. "Users must pick up and collect the scattered coins and reflect on their laziness," the Japanese company said.

I need one of these, I just do. The old hide-large-bills-in-the-pockets-of-jeans-you-rarely-wear method only goes so far. But I unfortunately abandoned the whole container aspect of savings a long time ago. I agree that the reassurance of easy retrieval (usually an agreeable plug) lent a contrived air to the whole enterprise, but maybe that's just me. My bank, WaMu, one-ups me around the 20th of every month, taking out a sum I should hopefully, not at this adult age, be missing, and shuffles it into a savings account that too closely resembles the sum of the teddy bear bank I rocked in the 80s. If only it resembled the glorious 1,000 lb piggy bank Mangesh reported on last year. What do you think: are people still using/abusing piggy banks these days?