No matter how much I will receive, I will need at least one bank account. The current account I have will work just fine. With my current account, I have no maintenance fees, and I never overdraft. I do have a debit card which is rarely used unless I need to pull cash out. In which case, I will take the debit card to acquire cash, and when I return home, I will put the card away. This bank account will be where my income(s) will deposit into. By having this single bank account, I will meet my needs.
I will however build a savings account. The amount will be 6 months of income. If I am getting $2,000 – then I will need an emergency account of $12,000. This is not really a lot of money, but it would help recover from a minor emergency. First, let’s identify what an emergency is. An emergency is “An Unexpected Occurrence that Needs to be Addressed Immediately“. This does not mean I will use the emergency account to buy a new TV. Even if my TV broke down, it is not an emergency. Dropping the phone in the toilet however is. This is because communications is so essential to my needs, that a new cellular phone is essential to have. If or when I will have to draw on the emergency fund, I will refund the account back to the intended amount as quickly as possible.
Another account that the higher amounts of money will require is a Swiss bank account. I am not using the Swiss account to hide money. All of my income will be capital gains, and traceable. Instead, I will use the Swiss bank account to protect any of my cash assets that is more than $250,000. The reason for this is FDIC will only insure your bank account to $250,000. Therefore, if you had $350,000 in your checking account, and your bank suddenly shuttered its doors without warning, you will eventually get a check for $250,000 meaning you lost $100,000. That is ridiculous, and not something I would want to experience. So once I have maxed out my checking account, and my savings account, I will need to start putting the excess money into a Swiss account to again – protect my assets. I would rather see a higher amount for insurance on bank accounts. I am sure many people will be willing to pay .5% of their money to cover for insurance beyond $250,000. I know I will pay such an annual amount to protect all of my money rather than having to have an additional bank account in another country.