Cash after a disaster

We all know the importance of savings, but I'm wondering what we could do if there were signs of impeding major catastrophe - not a temporary disaster, like a tornado, which is tragic and dangerous, but world quickly returns to a degree of normalcy once it has passes, but something up to the proverbial SHTF. In such cases it's likely you won't be able to access your bank account, and the national currency might lose its value quickly, effectively wiping out your stash of cash if you're caught unawares. Do you think there any ways to prevent this? Like keeping an amount of money in cash in a foreign currency, which is likely to mantain value even after your country collapses, such as yen, dollar, Swiss frank (each not applicable in its respective country, of course). You might have heard or read about the situation in Venezuela right now, and it seems the black market (which now trades much of the country's foodstuffs and other necessites) there is largely operating on dollars. I've also seen people on the Web claiming that gold is a safe way to store your savings, but I don't know if it's a valuable advice. How do you divide a gold bar in smaller pieces with only home equipment, for instance?

 

@lonewolf Barter system is very limited in practice, I would expect even after a total collpase some sorrt of currency would be re-estabilished quickly (although our first concern would still be with surviving to that stage). The claim is that gold and silver used to be main equaivalent of cash in less advanced eras than now, and some people expect this would happen again. It seeems to me like they speculate too much, but I wondered if other people here would agree with this opinion?

 

I have plenty of cash on hand. I also have a stash of silver coins, that I add to every month. My cash is in various denominations - £5.00/£10.00/£20.00 notes - no £50's! My silver coins are 1oz Britannia's. I am not storing them in particular preparation for some kind of long-term financial crisis, they are simply to add to my retirement fund, abut they will definitely come in handy if we find ourselves in a situation where money is no longer viable.

 

If all currencies become completely devaluated, a good bartering chip is to have metals lying around, like gold, silver, copper and iron. (Basically if there's no hope of returning to the banknote/coin/digital system of currency, then all digital and paper money will be just paper and chips. Metal coins would be propably worth about as much as their metal in weight.) Rare metals like rare earths might not be applicable in this situation because it's hard to find people who would have applications at hand for them.
Many people find cigarettes to be a very widely accepted form of currency in jails and impoverished areas. It depends where you are of course.

Mind that as long as you can offer widely accepted items like food or tools, or offer your services such as fixing someone's weapon or car, then you can prety much pay for everything.
In such cases another method used was that people in a structured societal group would abide to a certain code of honour where you could just put things on a tab for each person that you owe to and repay them when something of equal value comes up.

 

Good point, cigarettes are pretty much guaranteed to have exchange value no matter what happens (if anything, smokers will want them more in a stressful situation) and they're easy to store, all you need is to keep them dry. Medicine and ammunition, will be valuable too, but presumably it will be better to keep it all for yourself.

 

In the cash of an economical collapse, money might be useful for a little bit as humanity attempts to hold onto some facet of the previous civilization. But, I can see things that require processing gaining a huge value: tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, medication, sugar, and oil/gasoline. So it's better to keep little bits of things around just in case you can use them in trade.

But in the event of immediate disaster that isn't of end-of-the-world proportions, always having some cash tucked away is smart. My one grandmother stuffed a little bit of cash into her mattress ever since she was little. Needless to say, I think the mattress is made of money rather than springs and coils.

 

I agree with @Valerie, there are a number of things that will be valuable in a crisis situation. In certain cases, fresh water could become a currency. Try to keep a variety of things around you and when investing in gold and silver, stick to coins and avoid solid bars. Gold bars are attractive but highly unusable in everyday trades.

 

canned food, small tools, a valuable skill.

 

Just keep buying things which you can easily use for bartering.

Money can circulate for a while but there'll come a time when someone say a farmer, doesn't want money because it won't buy them fertilizer or something else they need. They'll want something which they could use in return for the food they'll be "selling" to you.

 

I'm sceptical about water, are you sure about this? Maybe it could work in a very dry areas, but otherwise, it's too inconvenient to handle in everyday or any common exchanges - these litres take a lot of space actually.

 

True too, when in large quantity it sucks to move it around for both of this reasons. A litre is of water weights a kilogram, and I don't think you'll ever be able to buy much for less than a few dozen, maybe if you live in a desert

 

In a situation where transporting it is difficult,the ability to offer containers of water becomes valuable and is something that can be traded for other goods/services. This already happens around the world. When the earthquake hit Haiti, fresh water was something that became valuable almost instantly.

 

If there was any kind of economic collapse, there's not a chance in Hell that I'd give ANYONE any of my water stash.

Skills will become invaluable if currency falls - learn something that will be valuable to someone else....woodwork, plumbing, electrics, car maintenance, sewing - all of these things (and more!) will become valuable commodities.

 

Another thing I didn't think of at first: salt! it's going to be much more rare in case society collapses, and people will always need it - in fact, seeing how much salt average person eats nowadasy, the demand will be much higher than supply for a considerable time after the disaster.

Yes, but isn't that beacuse the island is overpopulated to begin with? In moderate climate getting water will not be a problem for most time, you can purify it by boiling, and as long as people can easily access it, they won't put much value on water.

 

Criptocurrencies may help as an alternative way to perform financial activities, purchases and exchanges. Given that the rest of bank institutions may collapse and render useless, that is, by far more probable than a generalized World Wide Web breakdown (because internet is not a place but a network of servers and users interacting together)

 

@Endure Yeah, good point, but that's only applicable to a situation where national currency and banking collapses, but most of societal institutions remain for some reason. Bitcoin's value depends not just on any access to internet, but also on globalised economic networks where it;s exhcanged. If it goes or your country is cut off, cryptocurrencies might lose value pretty quickly. I think that something not dependent on high-tech is more practical.

 

Then for those cases you can buy valuable stuff as a backup for savings. inmovables, tools, T.V etc.

 

You can profit by supplying anything in need if you can!

If you have a well and an industrial type filter AND you are sure of the safety of the finished product water is an excellent commodity to sell!
Provided you can maintain control of it!
Everyone needs it every day, it is heavy so hard to carry long term supplies!
You will need to be adaptable in what you exchange it for!
and be mindfull of your supplies capacity!

Standard business rules apply! reasonable sustainable price, do not exceed 80% of your supply capacity, have enough stock on hand etc !

 

Yes, that may be true but I was speaking in general because there are people on this forum from different environments. I'm in the UK and it's possible in the event of a serious catastrophe that water may become restricted in certain parts of the country.

 

Whatever method you use to store your cash, this will not ease the possibility of impending loss if the money is deposited in currency that is prone to volatility and fluctuations. The best way to store cash is in form of dollars since they are universal. It follows that keeping money in a mutual fund is the best option since not only does it gain value but its also insulated against inflationary and deflationary pressures. Its also dynamic to interchange with other currencies.

 

Really hard to predict how money would be effected by something like this. I think having canned or dried food along with fuel and even paper products like toilet paper could be a real lifesaver in these situations. It's not a bad thing to stockpile canned food and toilet paper anyway, and they would be great items if forced to barter.

 

I agree, especially with a valuable skill. You have to think in terms of "what if". If the economic system crashes people will have to turn to other means for procuring necessities. Think about how much people rely on others to do things for them. Knowing a valuable skill that is in demand will put you in a place of supplying what is demanded. You can then set up a new economic system. You'll be in control and not under someone else's. It's definitely something to think about. These skills will not only help you in terms of your own needs, but you can benefit by using this skill for others.

 

Cash is only store of value. Better to invest now than to keep money stored away. I'm sure some people will still accept cash though, believing that society will get back up to speed quickly. So it wouldn't be totally worthless, although it will lose a lot of value.

 

As old monetary systems breakdown, individuals will run to Bitcoin as an approach to keep from losing everything. Bitcoin is turning into the worldwide monetary revenue of choice and in a collapsing economy it is required to live up to its claims.

This is the reason Bitcoiners frequently praise bitcoin as a savior as they await the possibility of a financial catastrophe , thinking bitcoin will skyrocket in worth. I am not certain I trust BTC as a main alternative to paper cash just yet, but I might give it a shot.

 

Believe it or not, I have actually heard people talking about putting money in BitCoin in case of a disaster. It sounded kind of funny to me, but the more I read about the currency, the more it proved to me that there is really little to no chance of the currency actually collapsing. I'm still a little skeptical, but if you read about how it is set up and how the system works, it makes sense in theory. Does anyone have any thoughts on BitCoin being a "safer" currency for times of governmental economic collapse?

 

I have plenty of cash on hand. I also have a stash of silver coins, that I add to every month. My cash is in various denominations - £5.00/£10.00/£20.00 notes - no £50's! My silver coins are 1oz Britannia's. I am not storing them in particular preparation for some kind of long-term financial crisis, they are simply to add to my retirement fund, abut they will definitely come in handy if we find ourselves in a situation where money is no longer viable.