My opinion is that we keep our money, not necessarily items as this would be a bit over-the-top. Have a class, similar to those native proposed; where you can choose between a small variety of, say; Woodsman, Warrior, Miner etc.
But the funds are what we have worked on for a long time and is our veritable 'nest egg'. I strongly advocate keeping money as NOT doing so would make many players disgruntled and not want to start all over again.
For example, GamingShadow has over 120k Minas and he, I am sure, would not want to lose all of his effort if it he had a choice.