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birb_cromble  7hr ago (text post)   127 thread views

Weekly Finance Thread

Since a lot of us here have expressed interest in not starving to death in a gutter, I figured I'd start a weekly thread to discuss financial matters.

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How much emergency cash do people keep around? and where precisely so I know where to look I don't mean uninvested money in a checking account or whatever, I mean literal cash not in a bank.

I have a few thousand, which might be too much, but zero feels like too little.

I try to always keep $40-50 as a minimum on my person (separate from my spending cash in my wallet).

As far as cash in the house beyond that? None. The situations where I will need cash in an instant and a check/electronic venmo/run to the ATM won't work are... basically just an EMP/solar flare situation that I for some reason can't wait out for restoration. Maybe that happens, I run out of food in a week, there's still no government response, but the stores have product they're willing to sell for cash only?

Perhaps I'm unimaginative, but it just seems too unlikely to be worth worrying about for me personally. Not that there'd be any harm in keeping extra cash in house, though, so it's not a terrible idea just for things I haven't thought of and/or convenience.

Maybe it’s different for you, but for me:

  • I had my wallet stolen once, so no card.
  • Sometimes the fraud systems flag you, no card.
  • Potentially a cyber crisis or run on the banks.
  • Sometimes, rarely, you need to pay for something in cash and you have withdrawal limits.

It’s mostly the first two. Given that banks take a week to replace cards, I think you need at least a week of money hidden at home.

I've got multiple credit cards plus a bank card all stored on my phone. When my banks have flagged transactions as fraud, I'm able to authorize them via SMS. IME digital wallets continue to work even if a card is deactivated for some reason and replacement cards are mailed overnight, so the opportunity cost of keeping thousands under the mattress outweighs anything else.

I've also never had a situation where I had an expense that positively could not be put off for a few days and was payable in cash.

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