Posted on 09/10/2012 11:46:26 AM PDT by Kartographer
If you have been reading this blog for some time you already know that theres much truth in the cash is king saying. When disaster strikes the cash only signs go up. When you have to buy / sell on the go, cash makes it happen. When banks go on holydays and everyone is looking for an ATM with some money left, Cash not only buys you good and services, it allows you to get some pretty nice deals. Since were talking deals, nothing gets you as many of those as a wad of cash at the right time. For someone looking to close a sale, the money being physically within hands reach, literally speaking, is an important factor. When you have to leave everything behind, what you carry with you and what you have in the bank is all you have left, and if the banks happen to go down along with whatever is forcing you to leave, then what you have with you is all you have left. Looking at different events around the world, if theres one thing all refugees have in common is that they can all use a fat wad of cash.
(Excerpt) Read more at ferfal.blogspot.com ...
“perhaps there will be nothing to buy with our cash...I mean I want to store cash but right now I’m just buying up on canned meats and veggies etc...”
I don’t consider myself an expert here, but usually markets develop, regardless of the collapse, with the exception being when a political entity (like a militia or army or police) intentionally prevents supplies from getting in. So, I think there will be stuff around, if you have money, or, in some cases, something to barter with.
As to building up an inventory - I’ve done 4 years worth of everything I can think of, other than food, water, and gasoline (although I do keep a decent amount of food, and have ways to retrieve, store, and purify rain water, and have plenty of gasoline, assuming that I won’t be driving every day). What I think is more likely than a total societal collapse is a crashing of the dollar - which makes everything go up in price several times (i.e., the Chinese pull the plug on us). When that happens the public will demand that government “do something” - and about all they can do at that point is price controls - which guarantee shortages - which is why I have such a healthy inventory. It’s more for comfort (i.e., not having to stand in lines for hours to buy paper towels, for exampe), rather than trying to go it alone in society where people are reduced to wild dogs (if we get there...yipe!).
The author says if stores are closed for a month so that you can't buy tp then hop on a plane. Ha, really? If there's no tp then planes are going nowhere. If things are that bad, then those little green pieces of paper will have two uses, 1) starting fires or 2) use as tp.
Having a wad of green tp would be nice during those days but I'm more concerned with not having two dimes to rub together today.
Mine mysteriously disappears.
$10k is the number that banks have to report.
Not to mention there’s talk of a QE-3 any day.
Excellent idea. Also, cocoa powder lasts forever. Chocolate syrup in a can will also last a long time. I found some in a can a year ago but don't know if they still make it. With the bottles being plastic and not sealed as well, those probably won't last as long. Here's a recipe for home canning chocolate syrup:
http://threeboysandglutenfree.blogspot.com/2010/11/canned-chocolate-syrup.html
Then the government wants their take on the little interest you're getting so you have less and less. If your money isn't in the bank, the government doesn't know you have it.
When push comes to shove and their in the voting booth, they'll hold their noses just like last time and vote GOP. That or not vote at all. Right now it's just chest beating.
So I have heard...along with much lower numbers. The funny part is that the transactions most likely to trip flags for me are transfers to ....write out checks for quarterly taxes.
My daughter took the EMT class and was a volunteer EMT for a while. From a survivalist perspective, the problem with EMT training is that it trains you to be an EMT: somebody who will have access to the full stocks and equipment of an ambulance, has radio contact with a real doctor, and who only has to keep a person alive for the 10 to 30 minutes it takes to get to a fully-equipped hospital ER. It would be better to take a course on how to be an Army medic, but such was not offered at our college.
I DID take a course on blacksmithing, though, and can work iron and steel into useful shapes using a coal furnace and bellows. Other useful courses for somebody whose bent is fixing things, would be auto repair, electrical, welding, and a number of other useful skills.
$10K is the number banks HAVE TO report. They CAN and are ENCOURAGED to report ANY cash transactions of lesser amount, if that transaction seems out of the ordinary for the customer, or there has been a set of cash transactions in the near past.
Yeah, it’s fictionalized based on people the author has talked to.
Here’s the SurvivalPodcast interview:
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/glen-tate-on-299-days
Do you think it’s wise to close a Wells Fargo account and put the money into a credit union? I thought you had to belong to a certain place of employment to be part of a credit union? Is that true?
Do you have a well and pump?
That’s what we have, and Hubby installed a small reverse-osmosis drinking water unit in the kitchen. But even on city water when we lived in California, we always had an RO-DWU.
The back-up generator doesn’t have to run for long to fill the tank, and the water tests pure to about 11 ppm.
We have filled about 30 one-gallon empty distilled-water bottles (we use distilled water for the coffee pot) with RO water, and will continue to do so.
Credit unions are opening up their criteria. Some credit unions are available to you if you work there, your spouse works there or your parents did (and you can join even as an adult child of the member). USAA is for soldiers, veterans and their children and grandchildren. There are community credit unions based on your town or geographic area. Others are tied to colleges, and you can be a member if you attended the school.
Here’s the NCUA credit union locator tool to find one near you.
http://www.ncua.gov/NCUAMapping/Pages/NCUAGOVMapping.aspx
Do credit unions have to do the same reporting (I’m assuming so)
If we go into a deflationary cycle, as most believe we will, then those little green pieces of paper are going to well worth having lots of.
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