|
Not seeing much mention, but in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, cash is king, as banking services are down and will not be restored until power, communications, and personnel can return to work.
The government and the banks would like to move to a cashless society, but this is a situation where that would present a huge problem.
Credit cards may be of use before the full onslaught, but once the financial network is down, people will need cash.
The amount to have on hand would depend on what your needs are and how long the banking systems are out of service. The former can be a mostly known factor, but the latter is impossible to predict.
I would want to have at least a month's expenses in a cash emergency fund, secured somewhere you can easily access it during a disaster (not at the bank).
Texas, Florida, and particularly Puerto Rico, have proven this out. A small island with 3.5 million people and no power or comms and the banks and ATMs closed is not going to accept credit cards or provide you with cash.
In a long term disaster, or a financial crisis, cash may not have value for very long either.
Just another contingency to prepare for.
TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
|