I'm trying to be extra careful about the amount of money so as to not tempt any crazy redditors. He'd probably be quite upset with me if I told him I presented this issue to a random reddit audience lol. I don't think he cares about the cash itself, but I don't know for certain. This is to say, if he were to bite on the safety deposit box, he'd probably bite on just putting into a savings account - which he also has (to my knowledge).

No no, obtained through a lifetime of working and not spending much on anything lol I could not even begin to imagine him obtaining the money illegally.

I appreciate your response. Waterproofing the stash was something I had not considered, but it makes sense if there would be a fire.

I'll pitch the gold idea to him

The money is legit lol the man just works and doesn't spend much on anything. I'll dig into why he doesn't want to use a bank. Hopefully it's something that I can overcome easily and convince him. As I told another commenter, admittedly I haven't asked why he doesn't trust the bank.

LOL sounds like a good spot? I'll do some investigating. Truthfully though, I think he's looking to keep the stash a secret from my mom (they have an... odd dynamic, but it works and they love each other), so I don't think he'll bite on the freezer idea.

I asked my brother about the possibility/odds of him swapping some of the cash for gold since it's an OKAY inflation hedge, but we seemed to think he wouldn't want to go through the process of buying gold. He's a very smart, but simple man.

I'll look into a floor safe? Didn't know those were a thing. I googled fireproof flat safes and saw a few but didn't think they'd be discreet enough for his current hiding place.

I did some research already on the bags lol none seem to be as fireproof as they claim to be. I'll see about moving the money to a "fire proof-er" location in the building. Thanks!

I tried to explain inflation and how it's "eating" away at his money, but he stopped me. I can try to illustrate it but not sure how much that would stick. Dudes never used a computer before so I don't think he would value an illustration...

I'm states away :/ and he wouldn't go for that even if I was in the same state LOL

I don't think he would care about/listen to/understand the consequences of inflation, unfortunately. I tried last year