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?
To all of you in the comments who are trying to give OP advice, thank you.
To OP, I’m sure you aren’t doing it intentionally, but you’re getting some great free advice from internet strangers, but your responses are coming off condescending and unappreciative.
To eco some of the others:
- Get a tax accountant to help you plan for tax time. The cost is minimal and the savings could be impactful.
- Invest the portion that you are not going to spend on taxes or the condo. You said you don’t like Vanguard. Okay. Fidelity has a great mutual fund search tool that allows you to filter for other traits such a sustainability. Yields may be lower, but you do you.
- Look into finding a fee only financial fiduciary to help you come up with an investment and retirement plan.
- If you graduated Uni 10 years ago, I assume you are still young and are in your prime earning years / future life events (spouse, kids, etc) may alter your expenses. You may want to consider staying in the job market in some capacity until you’re positive the income or skills are no longer needed.
Or ignore. It’s your life. Congrats on the windfall and kudos on keeping your expenses so low. Best of luck!
Thanks. Is a tax accountant different than a CPA? That’s definitely my priority now.
I’m still waiting for them to pencil me into a meeting, but so far it looks like three’s not much I can do to reduce my capital gains tax burden.
Sorry, I do appreciate advice in general – but I do not take kindly to people who tell me to invest in mass murder and genocide.
Too often in these spaces do people take that in stride; we need a culture that condemns such advice. It’s not okay to invest in companies like Lockheed or UnitedHealtcare.
Only 1mm I wouldn’t sweat it
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.
Be careful. You run many of the same risks as a lotto winner.
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!
cash management account
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 $
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!
Synaspe collapse is horrible. Thanks for the link!
Fidelity and Vanguard have the cash for auditors (and lawyers to fight against me…).
The $250k FDIC insured amount is per account ownership category. These categories are Single accounts, Joint accounts, certain retirement accounts like IRAs, Trusts, corporate accounts, corporate or partnership accounts, employee benefit plan accounts, and government accounts.
Since you are planning on using most of it for retirement, it would seem like opening an IRA at a couple of the banks you already do business with are the best bet.
I’m planning on using most of it to buy land as soon as I can. I do have retirement funds, but I don’t plan to contribute to them from this windfall – other than my usual yearly max Roth IRA contribution.
If I was you, I might take a risk and start a business, maybe abroad, maybe in USA
Its awful if you just want to relax and retire, but if it works out then your retirement won’t just be comfortable, it’ll be luxurious and it’ll extend to your family (if you so wish)
