Where to stash cash at home

With the recent stock market horrors, you might be tempted to stash what’s left of your bankroll inside your mattress. Probably not a good idea.

Still, having a modest cache of cash at home can be a convenience and save you endless visits to the ATM. You might also hide at home any not-terribly-expensive jewelry you use frequently, as opposed to in a safe-deposit box.

But where? In the refrigerator? Inside your rolled-up socks or at the bottom of your underwear drawer? Smart thieves know to look there.

Other possibilities: The space behind your medicine cabinet. Inside a ceiling light fixture you don’t use for light. Inside a waterproof bag taped to the top lid of your toilet tank (or actually in the water). Inside a chair or sofa cushion—scoop out some of the filling.

Or, how about behind acoustic tiles in the ceiling? According to the book “Hiding Your Money” by Jerome Schneider and Allison Hope Weiner, “The beauty of acoustic tiles is that they always look broken, moved and dirty.”

I used to keep my modest emergency cash supply at home in an old book by John Aubrey, called “Brief Lives.” It was buried in a bookcase containing maybe 200 or 300 books. A thief would become fairly well educated, I figured, just trying to find my spare money. —Warren Boroson

Guest contributor Warren Boroson is the author of more than 20 books, including “How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett” (J.K. Lasser).

Comments

[bben]

I owned a security company for 6 years. I saw most of these tried and failed.
The real crooks know where to look. Get a safe and be sure to bolt it down. They will still try to open it with an axe and thereby make it difficult for you to open. The dual stash method works sometimes. Have a smaller amount of cash - at least $50 in a usual place that can be found easily - see above for suggestions. Then any more in a less obvious place , a fake pipe is pretty good. Never hide valuables in a portable object, not even a heavy piece of furniture. I had a customer who returned from vacation and found their home cleaned out - all furniture, appliances and even the drapes gone. If it's not nailed down they will steal it. if it is nailed down, they will steal the nails.

[Frank Coberly]

The best place I've found is in the freezer. wrap it in papertowel lable it "tripe" or something no one is going to eat. put it in a freezer bag. It's called cold cash.

Safe from fire, and about everything else.

[Ponter]

The better the hiding place, the greater the chance you'll eventually forget where it's hidden and lose it.
Whenever you're buying second-hand furniture, pull it to bits for this very reason.

[Big Manny]

If you are going to hide a couple month's worth of living expenses....."semi-hide" a couple of hundred dollars, knowing that will be found easily. That is your insurance policy, and if and when found a thief will likely leave quickly, believing they've scored.

[aber]

The real problem is that we trust our home hide places more than the financial people (Banks, Brokers´Houses, etc...) and the Goverment. They r crooks, so we have to find a way to protect ourselves against all of them.

[Pam]

The government is discussing "borrowing" from the FDIC to fund their outlandish spending programs. Don't count on the FDIC having funds to replace your investments should the banks fail!

[KC]

If we aren't talking about thousands I just hide the money in an easy to find spot in the kitchen. If someone breaks in my home I want them to easily find some money and leave. If they find the $200 or so dollars I keep on hand in my kitchen cabinet then they will leave. Most thieves are just drug addicts looking for an easy score.

[Ted]

It's been my experience that if a thief scores then he/she will be back.

[Morton Grass]

I keep my money in a bank checking account or Treasuries; automatically buy more Treasuries each month; and about a hundred in cash at home so I know what I'm thinking about at home when I think of money. My credit account covers overdrafts and the treasuries are gradually overtaking my debt. Treasury sells savings bonds in small amounts and large. The American economic system has enormous power to keep itself dry and is very unlikely to fold. I've always found the bank more secure than cash, which is always targeted by experts in advertising, marketing and sales.

Most of my purchases are by debit card. Credit is for larger items. I've studied economics a lot on my own and my spending is usually Pareto optimum - same utility increment for each dollar no matter what I spend it on.

It does seem odd, though, that Federal judiciary influence seems to recommend hiding cash in stashes in the wilderness. I've not figured that out yet unless the gloom and doom prophets are right, God forbid. They've never been so far.

Recession is just tough. Be frugal. Something very slow is going on, that needs to come to a pass, and then the economy will expand greatly, even flower again. I think it's probably the slow rotation of the Milky Way galaxy, which is very familiar to women, and to the Senate.

As for the House, it's currently controlled by the... well, crowds.