The title says all?

Bill in South Carolina

-- Bill in South Carolina (notaclue@webtv.net), January 11, 2000

Answers

Have you received a monthly statement from your bank yet this month? Does it cover any January transactions?

-- Something (to@think.about), January 11, 2000.

Not unless it is absolutely necessary for your economic well-being IMHO.

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), January 11, 2000.

As soon as the stock market rebounds from the horrible crash.

Or, welll...why don't you send it to me, and I'll keep it safe for you...

-- J.D. Salinger (free@checking.rules), January 11, 2000.

When was it not OK to leave it in... In all seriousness, the marginal reserve banking system of this country will allways carry a certain amount of risk to it. A prudent person never puts everything in one basket,but if there were going to be bank runs over Y2K then that danger passed after the relatively non-eventful rollover.(in my opinion)

-- jim (jim@aol.com), January 11, 2000.

Bill

Banks are very convenient these days. You can even get your money out of Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs for short) without having to deal with a real person. I've enjoyed these ATMs for many, many years now with no problems at all. Ever.

I bet if you have at least fifty bucks most banks will allow you to open an account and take advantage of this modern day convenience.

You should give it a try.

Of course the above was tongue-in-cheek, but yall get my drift....:-)

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), January 11, 2000.

As Paul Milne has pointed out, the fractional reserve system is a fraud and it will come crashing down upon us very soon. Therefore, your answer is "never."

-- (brian@holer.net), January 11, 2000.

One thing I've learned from researching Y2K is that the entire financial system really is based on papering over the cracks in the underlying assumptions and mechanisms. However, it's thick paper, in lots of layes, and it's been up for a long time now.

I'm currently splitting my reserves between cash-in-hand and banks, and my spending between credit and debit. I reckon that I've got the savvy and persistence to get any electronic snafus corrected - if they weren't in my favour, that is.

All things in moderation.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 11, 2000.

brian

Pig-farming and banking are two totally different fields.

Kind of in the same light as pig-farming and Y2K.

I believe past experience clearly shows you should not mix the two.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), January 11, 2000.

Got to pass on what I think is a funny story. My parents returned their money to the bank yesterday. They had positioned some of their CDs to run out in the 4th quarter of last year, as they expired, they took cash in $20's (they are in their mid-to-late 70's).

As they cashed out, they would bring the cash by my house and I would vaccum seal the money. They took the packages home and buried some in the yard, some in the garden, some in canisters of flour, etc., some in the wood stove under the ashes (they only use the stove for power failures) and other misc. places.

When they returned the money, they did not unpackage the bills at home, but stood at the teller window and gave the story on where each pack had been 'hiding'. The teller laughed and said that they were the most fun to wait on of anyone she had ever waited on before. The teller was even smelling the packs to try to figure out what they had been stashed in. My mom's a trip, so I'm sure she enjoying getting reactions from all involved. I haven't asked yet, but I'll guess that they carried it back in a brown grocery bag.

I asked her how much was involved, she said $11,000 (5 $100 bills, the rest were $20's).

-- BH (bh_silentvoice@hotmail.com), January 11, 2000.

BH, ROFL! I can just see this little, old couple (mom sounds pretty feisty!) walking into the bank with a brown paper bag, filled with multiple vacuum-sealed baggies containing $10,500 in twenties (that's 525 twenty-dollar bills!), each baggie smelling of earth, flour, ashes, etc. It sounds like both your folks and the bank teller treated this unique event with rare good humor. I'm glad nobody called the media and tried to make the 'rents look like lunatics rather than concerned citizens who probably remember the Depression only too well. My best to them...they sound like good folk.

-- (RUOK@yesiam.com), January 11, 2000.

Keep the cash and pay bills with money orders. What's the advantage of having the money back in? It's still very early.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 11, 2000.

Listen to this: One of my friend's husband was trying to hide some money from her, he put it in zip lock bags and buried it in the back yard. When he needed it, he went to dig it up and all that was there was shredded money and shredded zip lock bags. The moles in the yard got to it and had a field day.

Smile, this is an absoute true story. j

-- janet marsh (jmarsh4185@aol.com), January 11, 2000.

A man at the factory received a serious letter telling him to withdraw 1/2 of his money and invest it overseas. Supposedly this was on the level due to concern about the coming US dollar devaluation. ???

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 11, 2000.

Dino, did you say US dollar de-valuation???

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), January 11, 2000.

You may want to take it a step at a time. Since bank runs and total system failures due to Y2K are presumably out of the picture, but you are getting nervous about keeping cash hidden at home, you may want to rent a safe deposit box at your bank. As your confidence improves, you can then decide if you want to make deposits into an account.

Of course, one must also remember the golden rule, "What governments cannot find, they cannot steal." You clearly leave yourself open to confiscation of anything in your box, in the same way that people had gold confiscated in 1933 by President Roosevelt's executive order.

Just my $0.02. It's a gamble, regardless.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), January 11, 2000.

Remember that credit cards are being used for a majority of our day-to-day purchases and business transactions. It is impossible to determine how extensive the problems are with credit cards, but we are hearing quite a few reports.

When people are not permitted to use cards, or they discover a serious error on their statement, many will be inclined to pull some extra cash out of the bank to make their normal purchases, until they get the card problem resolved.

We could still have a silent catastrophe coming toward us, just when people least expect it. The banks are not keeping extra cash around anymore because they're convinced the potential for panic is gone, but what will happen if millions of people receive their card statements at month end, discover errors and decide to start using cash? I certainly wouldn't be in any hurry to put it back until you are certain there is no possibility for cash shortages, maybe a couple of months from now.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), January 11, 2000.

Lisa...

.....ROFL! This dollar devaluation has been going on now... since 1933! Can't believe you missed it...

Hawk...

.....How are you? Again, sound advice, except, if I were to add to it, I'd say for a couple of centuries! I got out of the banking system back in 1974 when they stole some money from me, and never felt the need to return. The banksters will never get another dime from me.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), January 11, 2000.

Lol Patrick, good to see ya! Yes, a couple of centuries is an even better suggestion. I also got out of the banking system and have found that I like it much better. Most people are brought up believing that they have to have a bank account without even giving it a second thought, but their money can earn a lot more than the petty interest they get by investing it in other things. It's going to be interesting to see the changes that will happen now that the banks are getting involved in the securities business. Pretty scary.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), January 11, 2000.

FWIW,

I work in the banking industry. On New Year's Eve, I had 88 dollars in my pocket. All my money besides this $88 was in the bank and will stay there. I didn't prep at all...nor did I fear any disruptions...so I never took money out of the bank to hide.

It's Jan 11. Banks settle and clear daily. If there was going to be a problem in the banking system, you would have seen it on Jan 3, 2000. Face reality. Do whatever you want with your money; I don't care. Just face the facts that the "system" isn't going to collapse; Y2K as a question of what would happen is dead. Get on with life, and stop paying attention to discredited fear mongers -- many of which just hate society and will continue to say "the end is near".

-- programmer (at@home.now), January 11, 2000.

Well, that whopping $88 you risked by keeping it in the bank is certainly sufficient to convince me that they are safe. I can see that you really put your money where your mouth is!

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), January 11, 2000.

Hawk...

.....He really did, didn't he... LOL! People never seem to question anything anymore. The monetary system will go... I can't say when, but you know it and I know it... It's just a matter of time.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), January 11, 2000.

Without question you are far more likely to lose your money by having it lying around in cash or gold in your house than in a bank.

Heck, if people are going to be looney why not put a lot of cash in your safety deposit box or something? Y2K ain't gonna destroy your box.

-- John H Krempasky (johnk@dmv.com), January 12, 2000.

If y2k has taught anyone one important thing by reading this board then it should have been about fiat money, the fed, the perpetuation of peons [us]. Get your money out of banks ***on principle***. They can shove it. There are alternatives Bill.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 12, 2000.

Hawk and Patrick

Yall should take another look at programmers response. I think you misread it the first time.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), January 12, 2000.