Apocalypse – Building an Emergency Relief Fund (Uncommon Investing)
Adam Scepaniak 02.15.23
Imagine, for a moment, that your family and home are rocked by a serious natural disaster. Perhaps it was one you saw coming or maybe it was one you didn’t. What if your home was badly damaged? Would you know the next steps? Worse still, imagine if the surrounding areas were leveled or flooded, too. In our plastic society, there is a good possibility that you might have no cash on hand and nowhere to use a credit card. If the power is out and local banks are damaged and closed, it’s a very scary prospect. All the sudden, you are left out to dry! We live in a world where swiping plastic cards gets us what we want. Some of us even use phones now and have forfeited the plastic cards; some of us. When things are going well, these radical, new commerce technologies work. They are noteworthy and people get excited about them. Of course, nature brings disruptions. That is why building an emergency relief fund is so important
Building an Emergency Relief Fund (Uncommon Investing)
The importance of having cash on hand and cash set aside for disasters is critical. It’s right up there with firearms and food storage. Why? Well, you could argue that its way more important than firearms because you will reach for a $20 bill many more times, in a disaster, than you will for a 20 Gauge shotgun. That’s reality. Now, your emergency relief fund is defined by you. That’s the best part of it. So, it’s not some arbitrary dollar amount that you must achieve in order to be ready. In fact, it should be more than just dollars!
Most people like to have enough money saved to assure they can handle 3 – 6 months of expenses. This money can be in banks and I have read of people splitting the money between banks. This “banked” money is designed for those personal disasters. They come more often than the SHTF ones. Another important aspect is cash on hand. How much cash on hand do you keep? That’s, again, very personal and a bit of a gamble. Keeping cash at home and on your person is much riskier than keeping it in a bank.
If you do wish to keep cash at home, you should invest in a fire-proof safe. You do not want to see thousands go up in flames because you thought it would be cool to wrap that money up in towels. To keep $1,000 on hand in the home for incidentals and convenience during disaster is not a bad play. Just keep it safe.
Precious Metals – Building an Emergency Relief Fund (Uncommon Investing)
Gold and silver are ancient currency. What does that mean today? Well, they still have value. It’s very easy to track and understand. Gold and silver are also very accessible. So, it might make sense to store some of these metals as well. When you are talking about an emergency relief fund, you want to have derivations that you can take advantage of in a hurry. With gold, this can be very hard to do because of the price. Gold is sitting at roughly $1,850 per ounce at the writing of this article. That means 1/4 ounce is worth almost $500! That is the most common derivation of bouillon or coin. Even 10th ounce coins are tough to use for simple purchases. Silver on the other hand is much easier to use. At roughly $21 per ounce, silver coins or bouillon can get things done and you won’t have to worry about buying toilet paper for $500 without getting any change in return or losing money on a deal.
Emergency is not Often the End
It is very important to be real about what makes an emergency. We are not always going to be faced with the end of the world as we know it. I have been involved in the prepping and survival world for years and we have yet to face one of those types of disasters. You know what I have seen a lot of? Natural disasters, personal disasters, emergencies that changed peoples lives for a short period of time. It is in these short-term disaster scenarios that we use that emergency relief fund the most. It is a cushion and convenience when the worst things happen to you. If the power is out and the stove doesn’t work, it’s nice to have a backup cooking source. Maybe you have a propane camping-style system that works in times of need. You know what else is nice in a situation like that? Pulling $50 out of that emergency fund and going out to eat!
Slowly, but Surely
The emergency relief fund is tough to build up. There is no getting around it. If you are an average earner its gonna be a long-term investment. Your emergency relief fund might start with a $5 bill. That’s real. However, it will look very different in 10 years! That is what we are after. Put the scraps away; $10 here and there. The emergency relief fund does not come from one big payout. Instead, it comes from a long-term effort of putting away little bits of money. If you have a big chunk to sink into this, well, that’s great, too. You can also shave from other things. You can abandon a subscription or a trip out each month. These things add up, too!
There is nothing about your emergency relief fund that is going to go viral on social media. It’s not going to get a bunch of Likes, Shares and you will probably never talk about it. However, when disaster strikes and you reach for some cash to get the things you need, it will be there. That’s the thing about an emergency relief fund. It’s there. Cash is king – and if you have it – you can have whatever you need. If you don’t have it, well, you are at the mercy of others. Trust me. That is not where you want to be after any kind of disaster.
