Anonymous
06/21/2025 23:30
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
I’ve got around $1k in $20s and smaller bills stashed around the house. May or may not be helpful depending on the emergency, but I do recall times when the electricity has gone out in a tropical storm, and stores’ cash registers were not working. If we had to leave the city because of a natural disaster or Trump triggered some other country into bombing us, it could be good to have some cash. Just part of a normal emergency stash/go bag in my opinion.
Anonymous
06/21/2025 10:37
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
Anonymous wrote:I was at KPMG in August 2023 when NYC blackout happened. right in middle of a heat wave. Subway down, ATMS down, huge heatwave and no credit card machine working.
I recall the Partner had around $3,000 bucks on him. He put a few people in Cabs paid cash, he even rented a Hertz car cash as we had an account but he had to do it in cash, none of staff had much cash on him. After he got all his people gone he casually walked over to the Midtown in his suit with briefcase and there was a line of cars very slowly trying to get in tunnel. He just said anyone going to Garden City some guy in a BMW and a suit goes yea why, he goes I will give you $100 bucks to drop me off my house. guy goes sure.
My sister slept on the front steps of her office building in 90 degree heat after building tossed them out at midnight due to it got too hot in building and windows dont open. Her husband with traffic and cell phones not working did not get connected to her till 5 am and got her. But hey she does not carry cash.
Great story!!
Anonymous
06/21/2025 08:13
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
This is DCUM….$100,000 minimum
Anonymous
06/21/2025 08:02
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
I lived through Katrina and it took FEMA and RedCross about two weeks to get things up and running where we lived. Red Cross only delivered a package of bottled water before that. Therefore, I have cook-less food and water to last two weeks and a lot of cash. Probably a few thousand. It's in a fireproof safe with all the important docs.
Anonymous
06/21/2025 07:19
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
I keep about $1000 in my safe with important docs. Another person who was in the area during the derecho and I found cash very helpful.
I also keep a random collection of bills in a drawer for tips, etc. somewhere between $100-$200 depending.
I also keep a random collection of bills in a drawer for tips, etc. somewhere between $100-$200 depending.
Anonymous
06/21/2025 07:05
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
Anonymous wrote:I was at KPMG in August 2023 when NYC blackout happened. right in middle of a heat wave. Subway down, ATMS down, huge heatwave and no credit card machine working.
I recall the Partner had around $3,000 bucks on him. He put a few people in Cabs paid cash, he even rented a Hertz car cash as we had an account but he had to do it in cash, none of staff had much cash on him. After he got all his people gone he casually walked over to the Midtown in his suit with briefcase and there was a line of cars very slowly trying to get in tunnel. He just said anyone going to Garden City some guy in a BMW and a suit goes yea why, he goes I will give you $100 bucks to drop me off my house. guy goes sure.
My sister slept on the front steps of her office building in 90 degree heat after building tossed them out at midnight due to it got too hot in building and windows dont open. Her husband with traffic and cell phones not working did not get connected to her till 5 am and got her. But hey she does not carry cash.
I don’t understand this at all. Cabs, sure, but how could Hertz rent a car with cash? At most, you could maybe bribe an employee who agreed to give you the car and do the paperwork (which is all computer) later. But nobody did a legitimate cash, powerless transaction with Hertz in 2023.
Anonymous
06/21/2025 00:49
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
This is an interesting cultural question for me. I'm a white dude and wouldn't care less about cash. My wife, asian heritage, thinks having cash in the house is essential. We, mid-40s, have a NW > 15mm. At my wife's doing, we usually have 2-4k cash (if not more) in the house at any given time.
Whenever we have anyone over doing work on/around the house, my wife always asks if there is a cash discount. She always suggests a 10-20% discount on quoted price for immediate cash payment. I'd guess her success rate is around 50%.
It is nice that for any babysitter or the like we always have cash.
Whenever we have anyone over doing work on/around the house, my wife always asks if there is a cash discount. She always suggests a 10-20% discount on quoted price for immediate cash payment. I'd guess her success rate is around 50%.
It is nice that for any babysitter or the like we always have cash.
Anonymous
06/20/2025 22:43
Subject: Re:How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
Anonymous wrote:my idea of an emergency is needing to tip someone in cash so I like to keep around $500 or so in the house.
this is how i feel as well. However i’m not a prepper or someone who thinks the sky is falling.
Anonymous
06/20/2025 18:27
Subject: Re:How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
Anonymous wrote:What good will cash do you in that situation?
It would buy time.
Most banking issues are likely to be rectified in a few days (banks could restore from backups, ATMs in a flooded area could be repaired and re-filled, etc.). Having cash at home would help to provide for basic needs during this time. It would not help much past that if there were a major disruption to our financial system.
Of course it would.
If the digital amounts were affected, the cash in circulation would become much more valuable and rise in value, opposite of inflation/devaluation.
Anonymous
06/20/2025 18:26
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:i've talked to people who keep anywhere from $500 to $10,000 on hand. It seems a bit much to me since I rarely carry any cash on my person. Should i really have a stockpile of paper notes in my house in case of local, regional or global calamity?
Always a good idea.
Think of this. All that "wealth" you have in digits is just numbers in a computer. Imagine a virus/hacker/disaster/blacklist wiping out the databases/servers, and now your "wealth" has disappeared.
What good will cash do you in that situation?
To buy things with.
Modern societies depend on fiat currency to purchase items rather than barter or using precious metals or gems.
Anonymous
06/20/2025 16:59
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
I keep enough to buy a few nights in a hotel, in case we had to quickly relocate in a power outage or other issue where credit and ATM weren't available. I keep the gas tank at least half full for the same reason.
Anonymous
06/20/2025 16:25
Subject: Re:How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
Anonymous wrote:my idea of an emergency is needing to tip someone in cash so I like to keep around $500 or so in the house.
That’s a big reason.
Anonymous
06/20/2025 14:19
Subject: How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
I was at KPMG in August 2023 when NYC blackout happened. right in middle of a heat wave. Subway down, ATMS down, huge heatwave and no credit card machine working.
I recall the Partner had around $3,000 bucks on him. He put a few people in Cabs paid cash, he even rented a Hertz car cash as we had an account but he had to do it in cash, none of staff had much cash on him. After he got all his people gone he casually walked over to the Midtown in his suit with briefcase and there was a line of cars very slowly trying to get in tunnel. He just said anyone going to Garden City some guy in a BMW and a suit goes yea why, he goes I will give you $100 bucks to drop me off my house. guy goes sure.
My sister slept on the front steps of her office building in 90 degree heat after building tossed them out at midnight due to it got too hot in building and windows dont open. Her husband with traffic and cell phones not working did not get connected to her till 5 am and got her. But hey she does not carry cash.
I recall the Partner had around $3,000 bucks on him. He put a few people in Cabs paid cash, he even rented a Hertz car cash as we had an account but he had to do it in cash, none of staff had much cash on him. After he got all his people gone he casually walked over to the Midtown in his suit with briefcase and there was a line of cars very slowly trying to get in tunnel. He just said anyone going to Garden City some guy in a BMW and a suit goes yea why, he goes I will give you $100 bucks to drop me off my house. guy goes sure.
My sister slept on the front steps of her office building in 90 degree heat after building tossed them out at midnight due to it got too hot in building and windows dont open. Her husband with traffic and cell phones not working did not get connected to her till 5 am and got her. But hey she does not carry cash.
Anonymous
06/19/2025 21:31
Subject: Re:How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
my idea of an emergency is needing to tip someone in cash so I like to keep around $500 or so in the house.
Anonymous
06/19/2025 17:26
Subject: Re:How much cash should you keep in your house for emergencies?
$5,000