This morning I pull up to the ATM and someone has left their receipt in the machine. Not an unusual occurrence. I pulled it out and tossed it on my passenger seat and did my transaction. When I got to work I was about to toss both receipts when I noticed the one l pulled out of the machine said:
Withdrawal $500.00
From PRIMARY: Checking
Available Balance: $901,727.00
WTF? If that is in checking, what is in savings? That is nearly 4 times the FDIC limit? I realize BoA is pretty safe, but there are much better places to keep your cash than in a checking account at BoA.
This morning I pull up to the ATM and someone has left their receipt in the machine. Not an unusual occurrence. I pulled it out and tossed it on my passenger seat and did my transaction. When I got to work I was about to toss both receipts when I noticed the one l pulled out of the machine said:
Withdrawal $500.00
From PRIMARY: Checking
Available Balance: $901,727.00
WTF? If that is in checking, what is in savings? That is nearly 4 times the FDIC limit? I realize BoA is pretty safe, but there are much better places to keep your cash than in a checking account at BoA.
Maybe they are buying a house? Got a deposit from gambling winnings? Making some other large purchase?
I suppose, but in all those cases a smart person would either move it to savings right then, or not put it in checking until right before use. The time stamp was 0513 this morning.
That’s crazy. At least put it in something that earns a percent or two of interest.
Many years ago I represented a company that was started/wholly owned/CEO’d by the guy who founded AIG Financial Products.
Company was late on paying a vendor $190k. I called the CEO and told him. He said “I’m actually in Boston today, I’ll stop by your office.” He stopped by my office, wrote a personal check for $190k that he told me to FedEx to the vendor, said he’d reconcile the books with the company later.
I was a 2nd year lawyer at the time. I immediately went to the partner who ran the client and said, “Is this ok? And who has $190k just lying around in a personal checking account?”
My wife’s current boss and her two previous bosses typically have $10M to $30M in their personal checking accounts.
I believe those people exist.
Do you have any insight into why those people do that? What on earth would the practical need be to have that much cash immediately available from a checking account?
I get that there are ultra-wealthy people in the world for whom that amount of money is a rounding error. But usually those kind of people are also at least a bit thoughtful about their money, and making it do ‘something’ rather than just sitting exposed/uninsured and not earning interest.
We’ve been talking about this all morning. Considering the location of the machine, we are guessing that someone sold a house on Friday and was checking to see if the sale money had gone through. We can only hope that grandma and grandpa have honest kids looking out for them and will make sure they move the money right away.
Her current boss has two very large yachts and is building another house. If he needs some diesel or needs to pay a contractor, he can easily spend $5M in a month.
Her previous bosses would give money to Stanford, BYU, and hundreds of random charities all time. One of their children’s job was to find organizations and people to give money to. Stanford received about $600M, which included their basketball/sports center, football stadium, and at least 20 other buildings on campus.
Could have just received matured /or about to purchase some t-bills from Treasury Direct. Some folks automatically reinvest with Direct (there is a limit on times) so it would only hit your bank once. I am not in their league, but occasionally have some big numbers, but quickly disperse to other investments. Saves on state income taxes. If the “Great Fall†comes with that amount in bank, yikes. I have mixed bag of maturities to minimize amount in fdic bank/savings. Or maybe about to buy some gold sneakers or bibles.
Or a golf pro who did well. Certainly not a pro triathlete.
This morning I pull up to the ATM and someone has left their receipt in the machine. Not an unusual occurrence. I pulled it out and tossed it on my passenger seat and did my transaction. When I got to work I was about to toss both receipts when I noticed the one l pulled out of the machine said:
Withdrawal $500.00
From PRIMARY: Checking
Available Balance: $901,727.00
WTF? If that is in checking, what is in savings? That is nearly 4 times the FDIC limit? I realize BoA is pretty safe, but there are much better places to keep your cash than in a checking account at BoA.
I’m on a trade association board as the treasurer. We just changed banks.
One thing I’ve learned is many banks belong to a group of sorts that divisions up large accounts so that the entire amount is insured.
That being said, I would not have that much of my personal funds in a bank. Leaving too much earnings potential on the table.
