How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

[Maneiac]

I have a big floor safe at my house. I keep all my cash in the safe in 1 dollar bills so that I can go swimming every morning and evening in my money. Very therapeutic.

Especially if its DEEP!

 

[Nords]

I keep all my cash in the safe in 1 dollar bills so that I can go swimming every morning and evening in my money. Very therapeutic.

A couple weeks of that routine would bring new meaning to the phrase "money laundering"!

BTW--when's the last time anyone saw one of those manual credit card-inprinter thingees?

We bought a couch at an Asian furniture store's warehouse clearance in Kakaako. (You've seen this warehouse street in every drug-dealer movie.) He was running the place from a cell phone & Craigslist-- extremely low overhead. I think most of his sales are probably to collectors & decorators.

As far as missing the interest on $1000 bucks... meh.. it is a tiny percentage of our networth so I'd rather have the emergency peace of mind.

Peace of mind for only $60/year and the cost of a fire safe, plus a place to store important papers, backup HDs, & DVDs. Of course if it's checking-account money then it's even cheaper, more like $10-$20/year. I'm going to have to think about that.

 

[chinaco]

$200 on hand for general cash expenses. Use a credit card mostly and pay balance off at the end of the month.

 

[happy2bretired]

This is a little off the subject...sorry? Has anyone watched "To Catch a Thief", I think that's the name, on T.V.? They stage a break-in and then go back and tell the homeowner what they need to do to prevent theft? Anyway, they are always talking about getting a floor safe and bolting it to the floor. Is that what most of you do that have safes? I have these dinky little fireproof boxes that anyone could walk off with....don't like that.

 

[bbuzzard]

I have a 800 pound gun safe/fire safe bolted to the monolithic reinforced concrete slab-on-grade foundation with four 5/8" anchor bolts (on the interior) with a total tensile strength of about 30,000 pounds. I am not too worried.

OTOH, it would take about 60 seconds to cut a 18" diameter hole in the door with an acetylene torch. Hopefully the ammo and black powder would go off at some point in the process and kill everyone involved . Anyway, If they want it, you can't stop them.

 

[Darryl]

Usually keep less than $100 on me. But we keep between $2k-$4k on hand. No real compelling argument why we need that much, but we drank the kool aid (most of it) a few years ago and believe if we pay in cash we spend less. I find it very traumatic to let go of US greenbacks and very painless to slide the card. We still charge gasoline paying at the pump is so much more efficient and a few other things, but cash is the primary media. Might be handy in a natural disaster, but I think it's tough to build a good case that we need this amount it just feels comfortable.

 

[Sue J]

The TV show is called "It takes a Thief". http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/ittakesathief.html

I have a cash stash of about $300-$350. I'm not sure why I keep it, I've never used it for anything. I just know I like to have some cash in the house. Whether it's for a natural disaster or terrorist attack or whatever it just seems sensible to keep some cash on hand.

In addition to my stash I keep an assortment of small bills so that I can make change for others in the house who don't have time to make it to the bank and instead go to the ATM and end up with $20 bills. They need the smaller bills for the vending machines in the lunchroom at work.

Every payday hubby and I start out with $30 in cash for carrying around. He usually uses his up and I rarely use mine, so I supplement his wallet. But we both use the check card for most things lately so we are both using a lot less cash. I've always kept piggybanks and jars for change. We don't have a lot of change anymore.

Last time I was at the bank I got 5 of the new $1 coins. So far, I haven't used those, either.

Anyone have opinions on whether the new $1 coins will be used and circulated? Or will they just be collected and dropped into jars and piggybanks?

 

[SecondCor521]

If there were some type of huge cyber of physical attack on the US financial/banking system, I suppose it is possible electronic banking/credit card transactions/ATM functioning, etc might be shut down while companies tried to figure things out and assure that all the account balances etc were correct before coming back up. Having a few hundred bucks in cash could be handy at a time like that, but there would be far bigger problems to deal with than running out of groceries.

Banks and other financial institutions disaster-proof themselves quite a bit, as do infrastructure folks like telephone lines and electricity folks. Even 9/11 only shut down the stock market for a few days, and that was I think more because they were concerned about panic selling affecting everything and not because they couldn't in practical terms process the transactions.

2Cor521

 

[deserat]

I get checks for reimbursement of my travel deferrment (train tix here in noCAL). I cash those at $150 and tell the teller to give me a benjamin - I *hate* breaking those - I've got 2 in my wallet right now - and I need to cash another check soon - I like the security of at least $100 in my wallet - many times I'll pay cash for something small - most times I use the credit card, though.

When in Europe, used two flaps in the wallet - one for US and one for EU - usually had about $100 US and that or more in EU - sometimes they didn't take credit cards and cash is still used fairly widely there.

Deserat

 

[OKLibrarian]

Anyone have opinions on whether the new $1 coins will be used and circulated? Or will they just be collected and dropped into jars and piggybanks?

not until they create a $1 coin that is easily distinguished from a quarter when rooting around blindly in a pocket/purse full of loose change. And even then they may just have to stop printing the paper dollars for it to take.

As to the point of the thread, we do the "envelope method" for most of our expenses (pretty much everything that doesn't involve writing a check), so we've usually got a fair amount of cash on hand--oodles at payday, less as the pay period rolls on. no big wads of cash in the house (and even if we did, would I tell the whole internet?) The most likely disaster to hit in our neck of the woods is a tornado, and technology's good enough that we'd probably have plenty of time to scoop up the cat, grab the bug-out bag (including the debit cards which can access our emergency fund), and drive a good ways away from the storm (at a 90-degree angle to the storm track. Kids, don't try this at home unless you have a 1+hour cushion and are VERY experienced with severe weather). In addition, we have plenty of blankets and a weather radio stowed next to an internal bathroom in case we don't get the alarm in time to head for the hills. We've had to do this dance twice in the last few years(one false alarm and one near-miss). When the May 3rd monster hit OKC, the ATMs never flickered except where the power went out (and the power was back up in most places that were still standing by the next morning). Unless a hurricane manages to strike 500 miles inland, a week's worth of petty cash, access to our e-fund, and all of our paperwork should see us through most likely scenarios. Depends what sort of disasters you tend to get in your area, I would think.

 

[Sue J]

I think, at least for me, some of this may be genetic.

I don't think I've ever had a conversation with my mother about money/finances/budgeting. My father handles all that for the 2 of them. I handle all of it for my husband and I. But a few years ago my Mom was going into the hospital and told my Dad that he should know that she has some cash that she keeps in the apartment, "just in case". He asked her how much and it's the same amount that I keep - $350.

Spooky.

 

[Spanky]

My cash position (in money market) is almost 30% because the yield is still quite attractive relative to that of a typical bond fund.

 

[rw86347]

We pull out $1000 cash out on the first of every month. Most of it is gone by the 30th. except our beer bottle funds. We save for things like tires in beer bottles.

At any given point of time we have between $2k and $1k at home.

having pure cash, makes be feel safe. Oh and I keep $200 in the ash tray of my truck for gas money.

RW

 

[redduck]

I have a friend, who a number of years ago was on a bus (in Los Angeles). Some guy (s)? robbed the passengers. My friend had about 80 cents on him. The robber was really angry with him and my friend thought that he might get himself shot. Now, my friend always carries at least $200 with him. Doesn't want to annoy a bad guy and he figures $200 is a great deal not to be hurt or dead.

 

[dory36]

Here's a case that probably won't be all that useful to most here, but...

When I lived in Saudi, before about 1997 or so, it was almost impossible to use credit cards, and checks could only be cashed at a facility that the oil company maintained on company grounds just for that purpose. I forget the exact amount, but to cash a check for more than whatever the company had deemed a reasonable amount required that your check be endorsed by your department manager.

ALL purchases were cash in those days, so buying a TV or a plane ticket meant getting the boss's boss's boss to approve your check so you could get a grocery bag full of cash to take to town for the purchase. (Felt very odd the first few times you did that!)

Even for lesser checks, the lines at the cashier counter were horrible most of the time, making cashing checks a real pain.

So I accumulated and kept cash in a safe. The total I kept on hand was around six week's normal cash spending, which I'd replenish through the tactic of cashing occasional smaller checks when the lines happened to be short when I walked by the check-cashing facility (which was next to the mail room).

In addition, I (and I suspect most of the other expats) kept enough cash on hand to take an emergency trip if necessary. For "routine" emergencies such as a dying relative back in the US, needing to get the cash through the normal process would delay things a day at best, since all flights left there during the 11pm - 3am timeframe, so if you didn't get the word before the 4pm closing time (which was around 8am in the USA), you were out of luck until the next day.

In an evacuation, those with cash could get out on the first flights, while everyone else was awaiting other arrangements or trying to fight the lines at the check cashing facility.

ATMs started showing up around 1997-1998, making part of the problem much easier, but the daily limits were low, something like $200 - $300, so cash-on-hand remained a standard practice.


dory36

 

[KB]

I started keeping cash around the house after a co-worker told me about his experiences just after the earthquake in California in 1989.

He lived near the epicenter and the town where he lived was cut off for a short time. Roads were closed, electricity was out so no ATMs or stores could process transactions. He had to buy water to drink and fresh food, etc and the stores only took cash. He didn't have much cash on hi, and he told me that he would always keep a couple hundred in small bills from then on, seemed like a good idea to me.

I've tapped my stash a couple of times when I needed money quickly...more than the ATM would give me that day.....buying a car for my son, loaning the other son money to fix his...stuff like that. Mostly convenience, not necessity.

 

[Sparky]

Remember the northeast blackout in summer 2003? All atm and credit card machines were out - only people with cash could get hotel rooms, taxis, etc. People were camping outside of Grand Central Terminal because they had no cash... I keep about 1K around for just such an occasion.

 

[mickeyd]

$50....$40 in the main part of my wallet and $10 stashed away to be used only in emergencies. When my $40 main $ gets down to a few bucks, I hit the ATM again for another $40. I use so little cash that I generally only hit the ATM every couple of months.

I'm sure that I will respond to this Q in a few years like this:"What is this cash that you write about?"

 

[Spanky]

Remember the northeast blackout in summer 2003? All atm and credit card machines were out - only people with cash could get hotel rooms, taxis, etc. People were camping outside of Grand Central Terminal because they had no cash... I keep about 1K around for just such an occasion.

How about keeping cash in the safety deposit box?

 

[LOL!]

Remember the northeast blackout in summer 2003? All atm and credit card machines were out - only people with cash could get hotel rooms, taxis, etc.

That's why I refuse to work more than a couple miles from my home.

 

[thefed]

I USED to keep about 10k-15k around the house in a safe. I now keep maybe 400 or so on hand....and the rest is invested.

 

[AltaRed]

Usually anywhere from $50 to $200 depending on how long it has been since I have been to an ATM. My last visit to the ATM was in January. I use debit or credit card for virtually all purchases. Spouse generally keeps a bit more $100-$250. I have never had an occasion to ever need significant amounts of cash on hand.

 

[mathjak107]

we bumped it up to about 1,000 or so. after 9/11 here in new york most atm links were down and even a few banks were un-able to open for a day or so. not that a day is bad but it shows you that your money may not always be avail the second you want it.

 

[saluki9]

I have a 800 pound gun safe/fire safe bolted to the monolithic reinforced concrete slab-on-grade foundation with four 5/8" anchor bolts (on the interior) with a total tensile strength of about 30,000 pounds. I am not too worried.

OTOH, it would take about 60 seconds to cut a 18" diameter hole in the door with an acetylene torch. Hopefully the ammo and black powder would go off at some point in the process and kill everyone involved . Anyway, If they want it, you can't stop them.

BB, that's how I feel. My guns safe weights about 600 pounds empty. I have about 4,000 rounds of ammunition on the floor of it which easily adds a couple hundred more pounds. On top of that, it is bolted to the foundation walls and the floor. Anybody who manages to move it up the stairs of my basement deserves to have my gun collection.

 

[HFWR]

However much is in the Monopoly game...