Picture this…
You sell your business. And after paying off your debts put the profit in the bank. A cool $49k.
Then you see on the news your bank, one day working as usual, and the next, closed!
And your moneys gone.
No, its not the 1930s, thats exactly what happened to me this week here in Ecuador.
I had my money in a month-to-month CD making 9% APR in COOPERA LTDA, the “credit union” that closed its doors this week.
What happened was the board of directors was accused of money laundering through several accounts by the government which caused a run on the bank. Then two days later the order came from the government to close shop altogether.
All in a matter of 3 days within this past week.
Didn´t matter the cooperative was one of the largest in Ecuador, had been around almost a decade and had 106,000 accounts opened.
Was this a government take-over or a highly sofisticated, well-planned bank ´buy-in´ where an insolvent bank orchestrates their own sudden demise effectively bailing themselves out? Who knows.
All I know is Im out almost $50k, and it sucks.
But now you know what it cost me about $50k to learn, that you shouldn´t have your money in Ecuador banks or cooperatives, at least any significant amounts.
Don´t do it!
There is a reason Ecuadorians don´t trust their own banks and prefer to store their wealth in real estate.
In foreign countries they´re not dumber or less-developed than you, really, everything is the way it is for a reason. You just gotta stick around long enough to learn it.
So one visa type you should throw out is the investor visa based on a CD worth over $25k… screw that! Best to go the route of real estate.
I´ve always believed it wasn´t how much you had in the bank, but your income stream that can make or break you.
This belief will now be tested considering I just lost all my “liquid” savings and am now starting from zero.
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