10 years ago, I graduated Uni with no debt and about $1,000 net worth.
My first job (engineer) paid $100k/yr. After taxes & expenses, I saved $70k per year for 3 years.
With $200k net worth, I lived on $5k per year and for the past 7 years, I worked only 30% of the time – just enough to cover my expenses without dipping into my savings.
This year I sold bitcoin (bought for $7,000. sold for $1,000,000). My target to retire-retire was $800,000, so I’ve finally reached my goal.
The sell orders executed so fast that I don’t know where to put it. I already stuffed every US bank that I have to the $250k FDIC max, but my last sell order exceeds that. I’ve applied to open bank accounts with maybe 100 banks in the US, and I’ve only succeeded in opening 1. My requirements:
[1] No monthly fees
[2] No inactivity fees
[3] No phone or phone number required
[4] Online Banking with 2FA support (TOTP, Webauthn, or email)
99% of the banks that I’ve tried to open with auto-deny me. My credit is great. When I call and ask why, they say something about the information I gave them not matching their records. The ones that have an appeal process told me “the system” denied me, and there’s nothing they can do – even supervisors.
My long-term plan is to buy a small condo in a city and a lot of land in the country. But it’ll probably take me 6-24 months to find and finish those deals, and in the meantime I want to keep my money somewhere safe.
I’m also a bit worried about the USD tanking. I’ve looked into banks in Europe and Canada, but Canada requires a tax ID and I only speak English. Can anyone recommend a very stable bank abroad (with English language support) that a US American can open remotely that meets the above requirements?
Where would you put your money if you were in my situation?
My advice is USA centric.
A cash management account with Vanguard or Fidelity will automatically split the money up to the partner banks. (There are some questions as to the fraud protection.)
Get a book on boring stock investing and the FIRE movement.
I put my money in the stock market, cash management accounts, and bank accounts.
Be careful. You run many of the same risks as a lotto winner. Money made easily can be gambled easily.
Also, get a good accountant. Taxes are going to suck.
I’ve been spending $5k per year for the past 7 years. I think I might go all crazy and spend $10k this year lol. I’ve already bought like 8 bottles of $3 wine!
what do you mean by “cash management accounts”. Is that just a checking account split with other banks?
I’ve wondered about this a lot. We saw recently the mismanagement of Synapse. It’s true that their customers would have been insured by the FDIC if they actually had put their customer’s money in these FDIC-insured bank accounts. But they didn’t.
These US banks have a history of fraud. If they didn’t actually keep your money spread-out in different accounts, staying under the $250k limit, then you would only be insured up to $250k, right? I’d love to see that theory tested – but I don’t really want to risk it with my own $
Synaspe collapse is horrible. Thanks for the link!
Fidelity and Vanguard have the cash for auditors (and lawyers to fight against me…).
Cash Management Accounts are labeled as such. They can act as a savings or checking account depending on the offering company (Vanguard is savings, Fidelity is checking.) They are a wrapper that shuffles cash between accounts but you don’t have to do the shuffling. It is easy to buy CDs and bonds from the accounts, but not stock.
Don’t use a new company, in a new class of companies. Use an established player.
And thank you for the advice. It is always good to challenge one’s conclusions and deliberately research the negative side of companies before doing business with them.
As others have said, the $250K limit seems to not exist. I also would not push it. The limit seems to be an issue for companies doing payroll. It is also per account. A CD and a savings account are different “buckets” with regards to the FDIC limit.
Happy to hear your spending is tight. Great habit!