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?

  • throwaway92937@discuss.onlineOPEnglish
    01·
    2 months ago

    The $250k FDIC limit has been a bit of a joke for decades. If the bank goes under, FDIC covers all deposits, basically everything.

    Wow, that’s a very interesting take. One I’m very skeptical-of…

    Open a Vanguard account put most of it on VTSAX their total stock market index.

    I try very hard to avoid investing in anything unethical, and when I look at the holdings of VTSAX, I see Apple, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Tesla, JPMorgan Chase, Exxon, Walmart. Fuck, they’re even holding stock in UnitedHealtcare.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      You got rich off of Bitcoin which destroys the environment just as much as Apple.

      The money you deposited in the bank isn’t sitting in a vault. Banks don’t just loan out the money deposited. The bank is putting part of your money in the market.

      • throwaway92937@discuss.onlineOPEnglish
        01·
        2 months ago

        My biggest concern about Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Walmart is their history of abusing workers.

        Bitcoin uses magnitudes less energy than the financial industry companies, it doesn’t use any additional energy as it scales-up, and most of that is renewable energy. So bitcoin is definitely the ethical option for the environment when it comes to non-physical money (despite the disinformation on the net about this).

        I prefer to put my money in credit unions (non-profit banks in the US) that do not invest in war, animal exploitation, or fossil fuels. Most credit unions loan out their money to their local community to support small business. That, bitcoin, and buying stocks in other ethical companies has been my approach to ethical investing.