Military Pension/Social Security/Inheritance/Long Lost Grandmother

[Detroitgator]

I just did this today actually.

Your question is/was obviously a big concern. We talked to several people, and they all said the same thing: "It's no big deal as you have a good reason. (which we obviously did). Take pictures how you found it. Deposit it all at one time."

The official banking rule is: if you deposit more than $10,000 in cash, then the bank has to complete a "currency transaction report".

https://www.fdic.gov/news/financial-institution-letters/2021/fil21012c.pdf

Currency Transaction Report (CTR): Use in Banking and Triggers

A currency transaction report (CTR) is used in the banking industry to monitor and report cases of potential money laundering.

www.investopedia.com

So my sister and I split it up. My sister has an account with the same bank that my dad banked at. Last week, I went ahead and opened one with them too. We both talked to our branches to let them know we were making a very large cash deposit this morning so we could do it at the same time. All this money was withdrawn from his account with this bank, so the story can be easily "tracked". We just want it to be as transparent as possible.

Even with the "heads up", it still caused a little stir. My half fit in basically a shoe box. That bank has a greeter at the door and asked if I needed help when I walked in. I told her the scoop. Eyes wide open, she asks, "Can I feel how that much money weighs"

I got to go into their vault. They counted it twice with their fancy machines and they hand walk me to the teller with a digital deposit slip and electronically filled out the CTR. Whole thing took an hour. I felt like the manager was just a tad annoyed during the whole ordeal, but was very pleasant once it was done.

it is a HUGE pain in the ass for banks (and especially branch locations) to deal with even $10,000 in cash.

 

[bradgator2]

it is a HUGE pain in the ass for banks (and especially branch locations) to deal with even $10,000 in cash.

No clue about that. I felt like she was annoyed because she knew how long it was going to take. And it did. Seriously… 1 solid hour. At the end, she said it was going to save her from ordering her weekly cash. Which she seems grateful for.

My deposit was 4,503 individual bills split between 100s and 20s. Our manual count was 4500….. so off by 3 20s

 

[URGatorBait]

No clue about that. I felt like she was annoyed because she knew how long it was going to take. And it did. Seriously… 1 solid hour. At the end, she said it was going to save her from ordering her weekly cash. Which she seems grateful for.

My deposit was 4,503 individual bills split between 100s and 20s. Our manual count was 4500….. so off by 3 20s

My wife works for a bank, everything you guys said is true.

The paper work, the counting, and limits to how much they actually want in the branch at any given time comes into play.

I don't know all the details on specifics but they only want so much in an actual bank in cash, rest gets sent out as quickly as possible, unless of course it's like they said about not having to order cash for the week, that was just luck of timing.
They'll probably still move some of it out because they'll probably have too much of certain bills....unless someone else was already known to be coming in for a large withdrawal (usually need a couple days for large cash withdrawals)

 

[bradgator2]

Yesterday, the branch manager asked me what was my dad's secret.

I said, "You are not going to believe me, but it's not to spend any money."
She kinda scoffed.
"I told you that you wouldnt believe me. He has extremely detailed notebooks documenting where every penny was spent. He yearly expenses were roughly $6000."
In disbelief, She then asked, "why?"
That I cant answer.

And so I am reading an article this morning on retirement expenses. It said the average retirement income is $55,335. He was very close to average. 75% of that is spent on 4 things.
36% is spent on housing. He lived in the same house since 1979 and it was paid off decades ago.
13% is spent on cars. He always paid cash, did his own maintenance, and drove them into the ground. Since 1979, my dad only had 3 vehicles. Current one was a 2013, with 26,000 miles on it.
13% is spent on healthcare. Well... he didnt have that due to military.
12% is spent on food. It was only him and he ate very poorly.
His largest annual expense was actually his cable bill.

 

[Detroitgator]

Yesterday, the branch manager asked me what was my dad's secret.

I said, "You are not going to believe me, but it's not to spend any money."
She kinda scoffed.
"I told you that you wouldnt believe me. He has extremely detailed notebooks documenting where every penny was spent. He yearly expenses were roughly $6000."
In disbelief, She then asked, "why?"
That I cant answer.

And so I am reading an article this morning on retirement expenses. It said the average retirement income is $55,335. He was very close to average. 75% of that is spent on 4 things.
36% is spent on housing. He lived in the same house since 1979 and it was paid off decades ago.
13% is spent on cars. He always paid cash, did his own maintenance, and drove them into the ground. Since 1979, my dad only had 3 vehicles. Current one was a 2013, with 26,000 miles on it.
13% is spent on healthcare. Well... he didnt have that due to military.
12% is spent on food. It was only him and he ate very poorly.
His largest annual expense was actually his cable bill.

Son #2 is like that, and has goals. He started his first job last year, July 2023. Started at $75K, got a raise in March. His job is on Miami Beach. He chose to live in Miami Beacj to not have to commute. He rented an older, small, cheap apartment. Has internet but no cable. Has $32,000 in his bank account after one year.

 

[FireFoley]

Yesterday, the branch manager asked me what was my dad's secret.

I said, "You are not going to believe me, but it's not to spend any money."
She kinda scoffed.
"I told you that you wouldnt believe me. He has extremely detailed notebooks documenting where every penny was spent. He yearly expenses were roughly $6000."
In disbelief, She then asked, "why?"
That I cant answer.

And so I am reading an article this morning on retirement expenses. It said the average retirement income is $55,335. He was very close to average. 75% of that is spent on 4 things.
36% is spent on housing. He lived in the same house since 1979 and it was paid off decades ago.
13% is spent on cars. He always paid cash, did his own maintenance, and drove them into the ground. Since 1979, my dad only had 3 vehicles. Current one was a 2013, with 26,000 miles on it.
13% is spent on healthcare. Well... he didnt have that due to military.
12% is spent on food. It was only him and he ate very poorly.
His largest annual expense was actually his cable bill.

So it appears this is from whom your daughter inherited the gene?

 

[bradgator2]

So it appears this is from whom your daughter inherited the gene?

No, I wouldnt say so.

He essentially lived in isolated squalor and withdrew cash out of the bank and shoved it into the mattress. I cannot imagine a worse financial or life decision decision. Hell... at least put it into a CD. And the sad/frustrating part was there was no reason to. No debt of any kind (ever) and bringing in 60k a year (forever). I mean fuk.... at least turn on the air conditioner (refused to).

You hear of stories of people with debilitating OCD. But they are usually freaked out the oven is on or something. I think he had it.... but it was about money.

 

[Gator By Marriage]

Yesterday, the branch manager asked me what was my dad's secret.

I said, "You are not going to believe me, but it's not to spend any money."
She kinda scoffed.
"I told you that you wouldnt believe me. He has extremely detailed notebooks documenting where every penny was spent. He yearly expenses were roughly $6000."
In disbelief, She then asked, "why?"
That I cant answer.

And so I am reading an article this morning on retirement expenses. It said the average retirement income is $55,335. He was very close to average. 75% of that is spent on 4 things.
36% is spent on housing. He lived in the same house since 1979 and it was paid off decades ago.
13% is spent on cars. He always paid cash, did his own maintenance, and drove them into the ground. Since 1979, my dad only had 3 vehicles. Current one was a 2013, with 26,000 miles on it.
13% is spent on healthcare. Well... he didnt have that due to military.
12% is spent on food. It was only him and he ate very poorly.
His largest annual expense was actually his cable bill.

His frugality was impressive, but a little sad as well. I’m sure the putting back the cash was in case of an emergency but ultimately just became a habit. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had no idea how much he had, or conversely knew exactly how much was there to the last dollar. Either way, it’s a shame he didn’t spend a little to enjoy himself a bit. My dad was child of the depression and he too was very frugal and had difficulty spending on himself.

 

[bradgator2]

His frugality was impressive, but a little sad as well. I’m sure the putting back the cash was in case of an emergency but ultimately just became a habit. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had no idea how much he had, or conversely knew exactly how much was there to the last dollar. Either way, it’s a shame he didn’t spend a little to enjoy himself a bit. My dad was child of the depression and he too was very frugal and had difficulty spending on himself.

Oh, he knew exactly how much was there. He kept 3, very detailed, different binders all tracking it a little differently. All 3 binders had the same final total. After we hand counted what we found, we were within $240 of his written total. The bank "found" a missing $60 during their machine count of my half. I havent heard yet from sister on how close they were to her half. My guess is it will be $180 off.

 

[bradgator2]

The money was found in white envelopes like this. He’d withdraw his monthly amount from the bank, and then “live” off the envelope. There is an envelope for every month. Made it easy to cross reference.

Just heard back from sister. Hers was $100 off. So we found within 80 bucks of the total.

 

[Nalt]

We found 2 sets of old Christmas cards for the 5 grandkids, that he never sent out. $200 in each card. So the 5 grandkids each got $400 over the weekend from the Grandpa.

4 of them immediately started talking about what they wanted to buy. My daughter that you are referring to above turned to me, handed me the money, and said "you know where this goes". God I love that kid

Strippers and alcohol?

 

[bradgator2]

Strippers and alcohol?

This aint Alabama

 

[Zambo]

Part 3 of the story.

He would go to the bank twice a month, withdraw the deposit, and literally shove it into the mattress. We found $312,000 in cash hidden.

If he would have instead placed into a S&P500 index. So $1000 a month, every month, since 1997 (a total investment of $312,000)….. it would be worth $11,500,000 today.

And let Klaus Schwab get his filthy hands on it? No thanks!

 

[Zambo]

When deciding how to take your Social Security, it’s easy to guess how long you’re going to live and then look at the tables and make a math decision about how to extract the most money from the government. What is harder to decide is what your lifestyle is going to be like during those years. And how much money is going to be required to live that life. I think most people in their late 60s and early 70s are going to be quite a bit more active then someone in their late 70s and 80s and therefore they may need more or less money, depending on their particular health concerns and other desires. For example, you may want to do a lot of traveling during your earlier, retirement years, and then, in your later years you’re just going to be stuck in a assisted living facility and not doing very much on a day-to-day basis. My advice is to just get rich now, so you don’t have to worry about social, freaking security.

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

If he would have instead placed into a S&P500 index. So $1000 a month, every month, since 1997 (a total investment of $312,000)….. it would be worth $11,500,000 today.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

The money was found in white envelopes like this. He’d withdraw his monthly amount from the bank, and then “live” off the envelope. There is an envelope for every month. Made it easy to cross reference.

Just heard back from sister. Hers was $100 off. So we found within 80 bucks of the total.

View attachment 59972

Brad, your father was younger than my dad(passed in 2013 at 83) but cut from the same cloth. Being born right during the Great Depression, his family bartered fresh grown vegetables and fixed other people's cars/machinery in exchange for hogs, chickens, eggs, milk and other essentials like clothes and shoes.

They were later able to buy a small farm where my Dad lived until serving post WW2. He never forgot that as he raised us either......always sacrificing by driving cars until you could see the road through the floorboards. Clothes were hung out on a cloths line and my mother pressed dads shirts and pants instead of dry cleaning. Torn pants meant we got a patch instead of a new pair.....Dad was a self-taught Quality Control Engineer for a government military defense contractor, but I think he was prouder of his prowess as a Domestic Master African Engineer with nearly anything that broke around our house....

After his passing my brother and I were named as co executors of family trust by my mother and it has taken us with the help of my mother almost 10 years to go through all of the hand written ledgers and notes. We knew my mother had used about 600K in keeping my dad at a nursing home for 6 years after his stroke until he passed. Knowing how much she had spent of his, pension/401K/IRA I really didn't believe there would be more than a few hundred grand left besides the paid off 3/2 house which he bought cash in 1979 for $58K.... then we found the Bond/CD ledger......holy fuk He had no stock holdings outside of his retirement accounts but stuffed every nickel he had into Bonds and CD's starting in the 1970's. Keep in mind rates back then were anywhere between 7-18% pretty much tapering down until the mid 2000's.

Needless to say we were off by somewhere between 5-6X our estimated value of the trust contents.....Yet the pair of shoes my Dad had just put on his feet before having a massive stroke at 5.30AM on his way out the door to go to work AT 78 years old nearly had holes in the soles.

 

[bradgator2]

I used this calculator. July 1997 to July 2023. Zero starting balance. $1000 a month. Dividends reinvested.

S&P 500 Periodic Reinvestment Calculator, With Dividends– DQYDJ

What if you invested in the S&P 500 periodically over the years... how would your ETF or mutual fund have performed? We guess at fees and taxes too.

dqydj.com

 

[bradgator2]

Brad, your father was younger than my dad(passed in 2013 at 83) but cut from the same cloth. Being born right during the Great Depression, his family bartered fresh grown vegetables and fixed other people's cars/machinery in exchange for hogs, chickens, eggs, milk and other essentials like clothes and shoes.

They were later able to buy a small farm where my Dad lived until serving post WW2. He never forgot that as he raised us either......always sacrificing by driving cars until you could see the road through the floorboards. Clothes were hung out on a cloths line and my mother pressed dads shirts and pants instead of dry cleaning. Torn pants meant we got a patch instead of a new pair.....Dad was a self-taught Quality Control Engineer for a government military defense contractor, but I think he was prouder of his prowess as a Domestic Master African Engineer with nearly anything that broke around our house....

After his passing my brother and I were named as co executors of family trust by my mother and it has taken us with the help of my mother almost 10 years to go through all of the hand written ledgers and notes. We knew my mother had used about 600K in keeping my dad at a nursing home for 6 years after his stroke until he passed. Knowing how much she had spent of his, pension/401K/IRA I really didn't believe there would be more than a few hundred grand left besides the paid off 3/2 house which he bought cash in 1979 for $58K.... then we found the Bond/CD ledger......holy fuk He had no stock holdings outside of his retirement accounts but stuffed every nickel he had into Bonds and CD's starting in the 1970's. Keep in mind rates back then were anywhere between 7-18% pretty much tapering down until the mid 2000's.

Needless to say we were off by somewhere between 5-6X our estimated value of the trust contents.....Yet the pair of shoes my Dad had just put on his feet before having a massive stroke at 5.30AM on his way out the door to go to work AT 78 years old nearly had holes in the soles.

Definitely the same cloth.

My parents never owned a dryer. Ever. Hung clothes on the line until the day they died.

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

I used this calculator. July 1997 to July 2023. Zero starting balance. $1000 a month. Dividends reinvested.

S&P 500 Periodic Reinvestment Calculator, With Dividends– DQYDJ

What if you invested in the S&P 500 periodically over the years... how would your ETF or mutual fund have performed? We guess at fees and taxes too.

dqydj.com

View attachment 60144

That looks about right.

1.14 million

 

[bradgator2]

That looks about right.

1.14 million

Ah, I see. No commas screwed me up. That makes me feel WAY better actually