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The other thing sometimes called money laundering is when you have some big lump of cash that you'd rather not have people find out about. Sometimes it's an effort to keep the money from the tax man (literally the opposite of classic money laundering), other times the goal is to keep it from coming to the attention of someone else who might feel like they have some claim to the money--an ex-spouse, a creditor, the guy who owns the land where you found the bag of gold coins in the culvert.

In this kind of money laundering, the point is to make the money disappear. This is the sort of money laundering where you might make use of foreign banks, shell companies, and so on.

There are two parts to these strategies. First, you need to make the money disappear. Second, you need to make it reappear in some gradual fashion that doesn't bring it to the attention of whoever you're trying to hide it from.
Disappearing the money

The easiest way to disappear the money, especially if it's already cash (as opposed to, let's say, silver bullion or a winning lottery ticket) is to just stash it in a safety deposit box. You miss out on any investment income, but it's safe and you know where to find it.

If you really want to be able to invest the money, get it overseas. If it's an amount that you can just carry with you, buy a vacation package to the Cayman Islands or visit your family roots in Europe and take a little side trip to Switzerland or Austria or Liechtenstein.

There are plenty of fancy, complex ways to get the money overseas, that mostly require an accomplice. The most basic is an invoice scam. Establish a business that imports or exports something. Meet with your customer or supplier and arrange with him to either over-pay or under-bill, and then to have your counterpart deposit (most of) the excess into your foreign bank account. An ongoing scheme is good, because the guy knows that the lucrative cash flow will stop if you find out the money isn't getting deposited as it should, but you can also work this as a one-shot deal if your counterpart can be trusted.

Banks used to help their good customers get money discretely overseas, but nowadays there are a bunch of laws against such things, and bankers are particularly averse to going to jail for their customers. Expect them to refused to get involved and to rat you out.
Reappearing the money

Now we're basically back into classic money laundering territory.

If you stashed a duffel bag full of cash it in a safety deposit box (or under your bed), all you need to do is pull out a few bills now and then when you're heading out for a night on the town. You can raise your standard of living modestly. Alternatively, you could increase the amount that's going into your 401(k) and then use the cash to keep your standard of living about the same--gradually turning the hidden money into above-board money.

If you've got the money overseas somewhere, bring it back in some way that makes it legit. The easiest would be to create an overseas company that then hires you to do something. You do whatever it is and send an invoice whenever you want some cash. You can also reverse the invoice scam that let you get the money overseas in the first place--now you under-pay (or over-bill), while making up the difference out of your foreign bank account. A third option is a fake loan where you "borrow" the money and then simply fail to pay the money back.
Instant disappear-reappear cycles

If you can't wait to reappear the money gradually, and the amount involved isn't too big, you can always use a simple casino scam. Go to a casino and buy some chips. Do a little low-risk gambling. (For example, bet each chip, one at a time, on red. Do that 20 or 30 times and you'll have about the same amount you started with.) Get a few more chips and repeat. Play a few different games (blackjack, craps, slots). Ideally, go to several different casinos and repeat the whole process there. Eventually, cash in all your chips and go home with a story about how you won a bunch of money at roulette. Pay taxes on your winnings.

Financial Shock is a kind of anxiety that results from being unfamiliar with the currency, exchange rates, prices, and standard of living of a foreign country. It manifests itself in a variety of ways. Undoubtedly, the most common aspect of financial shock is one's utter unfamiliarity with the money. It looks and feels different and has a seemingly nebulous value. Thus, it can feel like you are trading your dollars in on Monopoly money when you go to the bank. At the same time, there is another related aspect of financial shock that can overtake you; namely, the feelings that "the prices here are exorbitant!" and "everything is cheaper back in the (good old) US of A!" And though these feelings may not be totally groundless, until you have become comfortable with a new currency and have developed a strong "feel" for it, you will have to dismiss them as symptoms of financial shock.

Moreover, there is the matter of perceiving standards of living; for even though you may soon feel comfortable dealing with a foreign currency, it will not be until you can put the standard of living from which you came and the standard of living where you are or will be, into its proper perspective, that you will be able to understand the true value of the "foreign" currency with which you are dealing.

For instance, in a country where the standard of living is considerably lower than it is in the US, equivalent amounts of money (dollars to pounds, francs, cedis or pesos) at the bank are not necessarily equivalent in terms of their "real" value. In fact, because a foreign national may earn only half as much (on the average) as an American does, the equivalent value of the currency is worth far more to him in "real" terms than it is to you. Therefore, no matter how you find prices to be abroad, they may be easier for you to afford than for the local populace. This has developed the "Ugly American" image, the traveler who has too much money and throws it around. Finally, there is a last symptom of financial shock that you need to be cautioned against. It doesn't happen to everyone; nor can it be predicted. And though its causes are many: "funny money," exchange rates, floating dollar values, etc. In any case, the end result is fairly basic. It is known as "abandoning reason to the wind and spending money like crazy," and those individuals who succumb to this temptation are going to encounter the most awful financial shock of all -- going broke in a foreign country!

NEW YORK — Total money market mutual fund assets rose by $54.01 billion to $3.472 trillion for the week, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.

Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds rose by $5.99 billion in the latest week to $1.238 trillion.

Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category rose by $544 million to $941.19 billion for the week ended Wednesday, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Tax-exempt fund assets rose by $5.45 billion to $297.01 billion.

Assets of institutional money market funds rose by $48.02 billion to $2.234 trillion for the same period. Among institutional funds, taxable money market fund assets rose by $34.38 billion to $2.037 trillion; assets of tax-exempt funds rose by $13.64 billion to $197.46 billion.

The seven-day average yield on money market mutual funds fell in the week ended Tuesday to 1.95 percent from 2.01 percent the previous week, said Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet Inc. in Westboro, Mass. The 30-day average yield fell to 2.05 percent from 2.12 percent, according to Money Fund Report.

The seven-day compounded yield fell to 1.97 percent from 2.03 percent the previous week, and the 30-day compounded yield fell to 2.08 percent from 2.14 percent, Money Fund Report said.

The average maturity of the portfolios held by money funds was 46 days, unchanged from last week, said Money Fund.

The online service Bankrate.com said its survey of 100 leading commercial banks, savings and loan associations and savings banks in the nation's 10 largest markets showed the annual percentage yield available on money market accounts rose to 0.66 percent as of Wednesday from 0.64 percent a week earlier.

The North Palm Beach, Fla.-based unit of Bankrate Inc. said the annual percentage yield available on interest-bearing checking accounts was unchanged from last week at 0.21 percent.

Bankrate.com said the annual percentage yield was 1.85 percent on six-month certificates of deposit, up from 1.84 percent the previous week. Yields were 2.00 percent on one-year CDs, up from 1.99 percent; 2.13 percent on 2 1/2-year CDs, up from 2.11 percent; and 2.83 percent on five-year CDs, up from 2.79 percent.