Man, 32, Still Keeps Money In Biscuit Tins Because He Thinks The Bank Will Steal All His Money

My primary school buddy (32M, working full-time, earn normal salary) refuses to use bank accounts properly. The moment his monthly salary drops into his POSB account, he runs straight to the ATM to withdraw everything down to the last dollar.

Where does the money go? Straight into a stack of old-school Khong Guan biscuit tins under his bed.

I asked him why he doing this kind of lao kok kok thing. He legitimately told me with a straight face: “Bro, if I keep inside bank, one day the bank will hack itself, steal all my money, and say it’s a system error. If it’s in my tin, at least I can physically guard it.”

I was flabbergasted, bro. We are in 2026, not 1960.

Here is the situation breakdown:

• The Setup: He has around 6 or 7 biscuit tins lined up under his bed, sorted by denomination. $50 notes in the Cream Crackers tin, $100 notes in the Marie Biscuits tin.
• The Cash Handling: Every time we go out for meals, he pulls out a super thick wad of cash like he’s some high-ses underworld boss, but actually he just paying $5.50 for chicken rice.
• The Refusal: I tried explaining high-interest savings accounts, SSB, CPF Special Account, even simple fixed deposits. He just hit me with: “FD only give you few percent, but what if bank collapse? You watch too little news ah?”

Now he’s panicking because his mother wants to clean his room and he’s afraid she’s going to accidentally throw out the Cream Crackers tin containing his entire emergency fund during spring cleaning.

I told him he’s losing thousands of dollars every year to inflation, not to mention the risk of termites or fire. But he insists cash in hand is the only real money.

Is this kind of paranoia common, or is my friend truly built different? Anyone else’s friends or siblings doing this kind of ancient strategy?