🇬🇧 HSBC UK Premier Banking

This seems to be the process from everything I can understand and group members' experiences. This may not be correct so do not take this as fully accurate; always verify for yourself. This could be a good foreign banking route 1️⃣ if you have the means, 2️⃣ if you cannot go to Canada in person to use one of their banks, 3️⃣ if Singapore/Swiss banks' minimum requirements are out of your reach.

• As a US citizen, you qualify for HSBC UK Premier if you have an HSBC US account. You do not need to go in person.
• Eligibility revolves around having either a mortgage with them OR $100K in each country's equivalent of money hanging out at HSBC in their deposits or investments OR at least $5K per month in deposits.
• Retirement accounts in the US on the US side count toward this $100K requirement. I verified this with HSBC UK. The process for that is:
  • Set up a banking profile with HSBC US
  • Work with investment side to set up IRA account
  • Roll over the IRA
  • Open HSBC UK Premier account
• Needed to open an account with HSBC UK/US:
  • Addresses for past 3 years
  • Employment and income details
  • Proof of identity

🪙 Currency

• SPDR gold shares
• BullionStar link to buy gold and silver (can also do their Bullion Savings Program since the fees are quite low - 0.09% per year) to be held in their Singapore or New Zealand vaults.
• SD Bullion, Summit Metals, APMEX, Hard Metals Alliance, Costco - many options.
• You get more for your $ starting at 1oz and higher for metals. Smaller quantities that you can break apart are valuable for bartering, though. Look for "combibar", "goldseed", and "multigram". Example of multigram:

🧻 Bartering

• Good bartering items are products that meet one or more of the following criteria:
  • Relatively cost-efficient - things you can buy in large quantities now without having to spend a fortune; the value may increase over time if there is high demand + limited availability.
  • Long shelf life to ensure they stay in optimal condition as long as possible.
  • Convenient to store (lightweight, small in size, easy to store/transport, last long.)
• Essential Items to Barter from Crisis Equipped
• Core bartering items - think about luxury or comfort goods:
  • Coffee / tea
  • Chocolate
  • Alcohol (for drinking and medication/tinctures)

💰️ Basic financial disaster prep steps

This is something I have personally done. I am not a financial advisor, and I am not advising or telling anyone to do any of these things. This is simply me sharing my personal experience/choices and what I have done to prepare for financial disaster.

1. Liquidated my slush investments and transferred them to savings; sent all savings to RBC Canada
2. Changed all direct deposits to the RBC US account for fast transfer access across border if SHTF
3. Purchased and verified we had metals on hand (silver and gold); enough to cover one week of groceries/fuel for vehicles, crossing border, and plane tickets
4. Put a small amt of investments in gold ETF; went with FSAGX as it's largely international. If you can, it's better to have it in something physical, like PHYS.
5. Rolled my HSA into Fidelity since they are insured (unlike Optum, I hate Optum). Letting it hang out in a interest generating money market fund to insulate from market volatility.
6. Realigned my current 401K to mostly international funds and completely divested of bonds.
7. Rolled TSP retirement into Fidelity IRA and letting it sit in money market vs investing to insulate from market volatility. TSP checks are written by the US Treasury and the G Fund is a borrowable fund the government out of any contributions from workers putting their money into it. I don't trust that I would see that money again. If I could do it again, I would move my IRA into HSBC and use that to get HSBC UK premier.
8. Opened an IBKR account and a WISE account and invested some savings into more stable foreign currencies (CHF, SGD, NOR, EUR, AUD). I went with both to diversify.
9. Opened a BullionStar Singapore account and used WISE to transfer SGD through PayNow instantly to BullionStar. Purchased gold through their Bullion Savings Program since the fees at this point are quite low (0.09% per year) to be held in their Singapore vault. You can also use the New Zealand vault.