adam2 wrote:I would suggest, if possible keeping the following.
About £50 or at the most £100 in small notes instantly to hand. About half in your pocket and the rest at home.
A few hundred pounds very well hidden from thieves, need not be instantly available.
From one thousand up to a few thousand pounds in a bank. I would not keep much more than that long term due to the longer term risks to the banking system. A modest reserve is handy for any unexpected and sudden expense.
If you are fortunate enough to have more than a few thousand pounds spare, it might be better to spend it on useful supplies.
If you work, try to keep a little cash at your workplace, enough for example for the fare home if your wallet is lost or stolen.
That's all pretty reasonable. I'm carrying considerably more cash at present but that is just my personnel preference after years of being on very tight budgets while raising a family. It's like Jed Clampet's walking around money.
Getting cars paid off and the house mortgage free is the biggest relief and boost to your personal financial security.
I think it sensible to keep more cash than Adam has suggested - just my opinion. My concern is that a hard crash, quote likely caused by the financial system failing and thus cash machines stopping could cause major problems.
Cash will be useful for some time and people will quickly find ways round electronic doors not opening and electronic tills not working, etc.
Medium term I agree that foodstocks including potable water are important. As well as security!
Longer term - folks who grow their own food will be the safest. You just have to look at the collapse of the Russian federation in the 90s to see what saved millions of people from starvation.
And of course mobile phones are increasingly your source of 'money', a 21st century tally stick.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Most of it (97% it is said) appears in our accounts as bank loans, created ex-nihilo specifically for the purpose by commercial banks. This is mostly well understood now and any doubters who still believe loans are redeployed money from savers are usually referred to the Bank of England paper** on the subject. The interest earned is a significant revenue stream for the banks that have been given the right to create money-as-credit. This right is not merited
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
