Box A is for investments like IRA, 401k, TSA, and similar plans. It looks innocent enough. It is very easy to put money into it. But, if you use it, you lose it. Box A has taxes and penalties that hurt you if you reach in for your part of the money. You can get far less out of Box A than you put in. Only a part of the money you put into Box A is actually yours; the rest is the unpaid income tax that belongs to government. It’s never yours since it must be paid whenever money is withdrawn (plus penalties when applicable). 

Box B is the bank’s lending box. We borrow for cars, vacations, business expenses, boats, appliances, home improvement, you name it. It’s easy to borrow money from Box B, but it hurts as you put it back - you must repay much more money than you borrowed.

Standing alone, Box A may appear to be a great place to accumulate money. But, it does not and cannot stand alone. We are lifelong consumers with a constant need to use money. If we put our money in Box A we must pay taxes and penalties to use it, which destroys what it may have earned. So, we pay interest to borrow money from Box B. But, that also destroys Box A earnings - it’s simply destroyed indirectly. Analysis proves that, on average, our interest cost for using Box B is far greater than what we can earn in Box A. Together they form an economic trap that systematically transfers our earnings, and the future wealth we could have enjoyed on those earnings, to financial institutions and government. No matter what happens to you, financial institutions thrive on both sides of your dollars.

There is a direct “profit and loss” relationship between “Box A and Box B”: when Box A is used for savings there is substantial financial loss when money is needed. What may be earned in Box A is offset or exceeded by taxes and penalties or by the cost of borrowing from Box B. (Savings accounts have their own issues, and are covered separately.)