My car has been my baby for the past nine years.
When the Volkswagen New Beetle came out when I was in high school in the late '90s, I fell in love. It was so cute! I made do with two hand-me-down cars until the age of 24, when I saved $6,000 for a down payment while living in Lake Charles, La., picked out the silver New Beetle I wanted online, and headed over to a dealership in nearby Orange, Texas to pick it up. Only regret: The auto loan was through Chase Bank, not a credit union. Scold away.
The Beetle survived a cross-country road trip from the South all the way to Oregon, a move to San Francisco, another move back up north and a final move to Los Angeles. I learned how to fit my belongings into the oddly-shaped vehicle like a puzzle. Now, with scratches on the back bumper and rips in the leather seats, it sits in my ridiculously-small parking spot, which is just the right size for a Beetle, at my apartment.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
