Prepping for the next finacial crash?

[grenfell]

I think it's prudent to have enough cash in the house to pay all bills and rent/mortgage for 3 months. The TSB thing has certainly highlighted how bad things can quickly get. But it's not just cyber problems, you could get an unexpected repair bill or lose your job or not get paid on time need to travel somewhere for an emergency, the possibilities are endless and having a cash stash is reassuring.

I sometimes forget about rents and mortgages and perhaps a lot of people do too as I would be surprised to hear that many people pay those in cash and we also have neither to pay.
We do rent out one property at around £450 a month which to be fair is on the cheap side , others in the area are £6-700 . Either way that does add up to quite a bit , £1350 on our rate , and that's without thinking about food bills , petrol or tickets , or as you say an emergency fund. It could easily add up to several thousands of just in case money and then that starts to get into the argument of having a substantial sum doing nothing , not earning and effectively devaluing as it sits there

[Brambles]

I think it's prudent to have enough cash in the house to pay all bills and rent/mortgage for 3 months. The TSB thing has certainly highlighted how bad things can quickly get. But it's not just cyber problems, you could get an unexpected repair bill or lose your job or not get paid on time need to travel somewhere for an emergency, the possibilities are endless and having a cash stash is reassuring.

I sometimes forget about rents and mortgages and perhaps a lot of people do too as I would be surprised to hear that many people pay those in cash and we also have neither to pay.
We do rent out one property at around £450 a month which to be fair is on the cheap side , others in the area are £6-700 . Either way that does add up to quite a bit , £1350 on our rate , and that's without thinking about food bills , petrol or tickets , or as you say an emergency fund. It could easily add up to several thousands of just in case money and then that starts to get into the argument of having a substantial sum doing nothing , not earning and effectively devaluing as it sits there

I doubt many people do pay cash nowadays, however having the money here so that should there be a problem either with banks, letting agent systems or mortgage providers, you can still go into the office or branch and pay cash. Because you just know, whatever the problem, they will still want their payment.
It's another one of those things that if you can afford a substantial stash that's great, but I suspect if like me you don't have a lot of cash bursting out of your purse then a 3 month buffer is as much as you can afford.

[Deeps]

Ideally I lime to keep about 500 quid in the house but its not always possible. I had to use 500 of the 600 I had for what I consider as essential, ojr season tickets fod the football. In fairness, there should have been about twice the money in the stash but real life gets in the way. I haven't factored mortgages in as if its something that affects banking I would expect them to cut us slack there. We would only really need to spend cash on fuel for the car and fresh food/milk in most situations. I like to have money in for an emergency taxi as much as anything more 'exotic' as there have been times when the missus has had a call to go into work of an evening and she's had a drink.

I also like to keep cash in a second wallet on me, used to shove it hidden away from my normal spendies when I carried one wallet.

[itsybitsy]

I think it's prudent to have enough cash in the house to pay all bills and rent/mortgage for 3 months. The TSB thing has certainly highlighted how bad things can quickly get. But it's not just cyber problems, you could get an unexpected repair bill or lose your job or not get paid on time need to travel somewhere for an emergency, the possibilities are endless and having a cash stash is reassuring.

I'm way below that at the moment. That's just how things are rolling right now. That would equate to about 3k for me which is a LOT.

[grenfell]

Hmm , makes me wonder even more this, I really should stop overthinking it but it's an interesting exercise. As Brambles says a lot of people are still going to want paying although to what extent they would push or for that matter punish someone with the funds who couldn't access those funds could be a whole new argument. Perhaps this TSB thing is going to throw up some examples off people struggling to access their accounts and falling into arrears and give us a guide as to how banks etc will react. I also wonder if some organisations are set up to accept large sums in cash , as we say probably no one pays their mortgage in cash now , would they accept the cash or accept a deferral until the "crisis " is over.
At the other end are the self employed like myself who are paid a percentage of their income in cash . Would customers have the cash to pay for any length of time?

[Arwen Thebard]

I'm finding it harder and harder to find people or companies willing to accept cash.

Recent examples being my heating / boiler engineer, the dealer who services my caravan and my gunsmith, all chose card payment rather than cash.

With mobile card readers being so cheap and easily available I can see their point, why have all the grief and risk of going to the bank.

It's even normal to pay for a round in the pub by card now... Who would have thought that a few years back?

It would reverse very quickly though if there was a serious problem with the ATM's / banking system though, so worth always keeping some on hand.

[xplosiv1]

Hmm , makes me wonder even more this, I really should stop overthinking it but it's an interesting exercise. As Brambles says a lot of people are still going to want paying although to what extent they would push or for that matter punish someone with the funds who couldn't access those funds could be a whole new argument. Perhaps this TSB thing is going to throw up some examples off people struggling to access their accounts and falling into arrears and give us a guide as to how banks etc will react. I also wonder if some organisations are set up to accept large sums in cash , as we say probably no one pays their mortgage in cash now , would they accept the cash or accept a deferral until the "crisis " is over.
At the other end are the self employed like myself who are paid a percentage of their income in cash . Would customers have the cash to pay for any length of time?

It really depends on the extent of the "financial crash" for instance if it was a can kicking exercise where they get the public to bail out the banks again I dont think much will be any different than it was in 2008. If it's a collapse then paper goes to zero instantly.

I used to worry about it but not really anymore, Governments and bankers will do their best to keep their system of theft going. the way I look at it is, if its something similar to 2008 I have enough outside the monetary system to pay my mortgage for a couple of years, I also got food reserves to last at least a year.

if it's a complete collapse then I have things unaffected by the monetary system that can be monetized (just depends what value people put on them at the time) and also my food reserves.