I have a friend and a few older family members that pulled their money out of their banks and hid it in their house during “The Great Recession“.  I asked why, and most said in case the country (United States) falls apart, they want to have that money available

This is damaging on so many levels both personally and for the whole country.

Reasons not to have much money hidden at home:

• If everybody does this, money tightens and we are in another “Great Recession” scenario, because banks have less to lend to businesses.
• Money hidden at home losses value due to Inflation.
• What if you forget where you hid your money?  We always hear of stories of people finding money in old houses where the previous owners hid the money and forgot it.
• Money hidden at home has a good chance of getting stolen.  Sometimes even by other family members…
• What if a fire or some other disaster happens?  That money wouldn’t be insured!
• (Update) My wife mentioned that people that hide money in their house are afraid to leave their house because they are afraid they would get burglarized if they leave.  Sometimes, such people even skip vacations because of this fear!

Another thing to remember is if the government does go down, that money is worthless anyway.

Since the banks are Federally insured up to $250,000 through 12/31/2013, doesn’t it make sense to take advantage of the free insurance (via the FDIC) not to mention the abeit small amount of interest you could get paid!!!

I do think it’s a good idea to hold a little bit of money at home, just for emergencies, perhaps a few thousand at the maxium.

I definitely wouldn’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars squirrelled away at home (if I had hundreds of thousands 😉 ).

What do you think should be thx max amount of cash hidden at home?

-MR