An 82-year-old widow from Atlanta called into “The Ramsey Show” with an unusual dilemma: she has more than $100,000 in cash that her husband had quietly stashed away over the course of 25 years. Now she's worried that putting the money in the bank might bring trouble.
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“My husband was a mattress saver,” Patricia told co-hosts George Kamel and Jade Warshaw.
She also said that she has about $400,000 in certificates of deposit, owns her house outright and estimates its value at about $425,000, and drives a paid-off car. Despite this, she lives on just $1,400 a month in Social Security benefits.
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“I just do my best,” she said about making ends meet. “I don’t eat much.”
Her biggest fear? That trying to deposit the $100,000 in cash will trigger an Internal Revenue Service investigation.
“I’ve asked other people and they say if you try to just take this big chunk of money and put it in the bank… the Internal Revenue is going to come and say where in the world did you get this $100,000 in cash?”
Kamel quickly assured her, “I don’t think they’re going to take you into a room and interrogate you. The bank legally just has to file a report. Anything over 10 grand, they just have to file a report saying that you deposited the money.”
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All Patricia would need to do is explain the source: “My husband, you know, saved cash in a safe for years.”
But Kamel and Warshaw both agreed the real concern isn't the cash, but the $400,000 sitting in CDs. “I’d love to see you invest that 400K,” Warshaw said. “That way, if you want to draw a little off of it, you can, and you don’t have to worry about it depleting.”
They urged Patricia to act sooner rather than later. “That 100K, as you know, has been eaten away by inflation,” Kamel said. “What you could buy with 100K back in the day versus today–it’s different.”
The segment ended on a lighter note, with Warshaw joking about walking into a bank with a duffel bag full of cash. “Can you imagine? Stuffing a suitcase with $100,000 and just heading down to the bank… I would get a pit bull to walk everywhere with me just to be sure.”
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