Of course if you have too much cash, it’s subject to random seizure under oft-abused drug money forfeiture laws. Then to get it back, YOU have to prove it was all legit. Although it’s unlikely police would enter your home and grab your cash, if you were transporting it in your car and got pulled over, you could have a problem.
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I have seen several vids on that kind of seizure, terrible abuse of the laws. 
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In a widespread apocalyptic type event cash will be worthless. You’re money is better spent on a wood burning stove, a generator that burns propane (it sores indefinitely and gasoline will be unavailable and can’t be stored long term), lots of canned food (still safe to eat after decades), dogs (alarm system), etc etc. Think about everyday little things we all take for granted and ask yourself how will you provide those things without power and water? Eg. a water barrel made for storing drinking water and a funnel. You can sanitize it on your wood burning stove to drink, wash dishes etc. Pour it in the toilet and can flush the toilet.
Don’t forget your home defense plan.
Keep in mind any money stored at home loses value. 10 or 20 years from now if nothing bad happens your cash is worth less, probably a lot less.
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How long of time are we talking about? 3 months or seven years? Things you need to work on is your contingency plan, do you stay put or are you relocating? If you go, can you get there? Then will it be safe? Each of us live elsewhere and to each of us the situation is different. Do you have a good support group where you live? Is where you live the best place to be? You see, I have a volcano leering in the distance that is close enough to leave me stranded anyway. I have a good group I know that we would join ourselves together and make ends meet. It is good to have like-minded friends to make it through hard times. It helps that I can cook too!
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Be careful carrying too much cash. If law is still in force, there is civil forfeiture by the police.
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Welcome to the community @Clifford33
Some states are worse than others when it comes to having law enforcement take peoples money without due process. Add in some economic and civil instability and the practice could become even worse and more widespread. But under those conditions you might need some cash to be allowed to reach your destination. I had a coworker who’s family lives in Mexico. She has to call them and ask what the police there are charging for safe passage before she visits.
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Welcome to the family brother @Clifford33 and you are blessed to be here.
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For a short term loss of power and on the road I keep $100 in small bills and about $10 in coins. By small bills I mean 1’s 5’s and 10’s. If all you have is 20’s that is what it is going to cost you. Happened not too long ago the register was down and the kids behind the counter did not know how to make change. Us old people had to teach them. Kids caught on quick. They are ignorant not stupid.
Collapse and paper money will be useless. So will funny money coins. 1964 and earlier coins had 90% silver and are currently worth 20+ times face value. A 1964 dime is worth $2 in funny money. This morning silver was worth $24 and gold $1900 per troy ounce. Prices are artificially low. If you have cash convert it if you can find it. Keep denominations small. Other high value precious metals are lead and brass. Inflation is high and getting higher. Hyper inflation is not far away and our funny money is backed by hot air.
You should have a minimum of 3 months non perishable food and meds on hand for small emergencies and I am not considered a prepper. Too old for a 10 year supply. Dust off your bicycle if you have one. You may not be able to get gas. Keep a good pair of walking shoes.
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I thought it always depended on how much ammo you had?
I have the silver dollar he put in his shoe from after the depression until he died but I keep a $100 tucked away for emergencies but I keep Krugerrands at home. (gold but legal cash)
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Here is a different take on the legal theft topic. 
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Thanks for posting this. When you think about it, cops could probably also seize cash related to gambling business and alcohol businesses, alleging the businesses didn’t report all their income, or comply with rules & regs at multiple govt. levels. Also, If you happen to own an expensive car, don’t ever pick up a young woman hitchhiking, lest you be accused of soliciting prostitution and having your car impounded. And for G0d’s sake, don’t actually solicit prostitution or try to buy street drugs from your flashy car! Cops might not confiscate a 2003 Ford, but a 2019 Porsche could be very attractive.
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About 20 years ago I heard of a sketchy practice by local police, along a highway leading from a college town to the big city: A bunch of kids are coming home for Spring break. Cops pull the car over, for whatever pretext. Drug sniffing dog gives a positive signal (yeah, right). Cops then search the car and find either pot or (in a case actually at hand) a fake I.D. in the glove compartment. Car seized. Owner has to pay a $500 impound fee to get it back. Local municipality does enough of these money grabs to buy a new squad car, which they use to grab more $$$. Seems farfetched, until it happens to you!
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Let me give you a real life example. A relative of mine was hunting in Willows, CA. That is a wide spot in the road on I-5. It is about 100 miles N. of Sacramento. Getting ready to head home he pulled into a gas station and noticed a lot of people milling around. He headed in to pay and the clerk told him “Cash only.” Because he frequently hunts in very rural areas he always carries cash on trips. Way in the back of nowhere small stores frequently don’t accept credit cards and checks only from locals. So my relative ponied up the cash and inquired as to the reason for cash only. Turns out there had been an earthquake called the Northridge Earthquake some 500 miles south. Electricity worked fine in Willows, but the processing computers were located in Los Angeles. No connection to the processing terminals, no credit card or check sales and no ATM cash either.
As to the amount — in an emergency, do you think the clerk just might have a plan to add to his or her early retirement and you find the “cash only” sales means that gas is $10.00 a gallon no change on hand so if you buy 5.6 gallons of gas and don’t have exact change it costs you $60. Need a place to stay in a snow storm and are caught in a really bad place in town. According to the desk clerk they are filled up. However, upon a $100 bill sliding across the counter suddenly the desk clerk finds a late cancellation. Yeah, it grinds your butt to have to pay extortion but sometimes paying the extortion is worth it to avoid an extended hassle.
Ever read the sign on the door of any hotel or motel and notice what the “regular” rate for the room is? At Motel 6, you will find the “regular” rate for the room that rents for $50 a night is $175.00 a night. In a blizzard with the Motel 6 mostly sold out, guess what the going rate is going to be and it is perfectly legitimate as the regular rate is posted. So that $100 bill that you thought was going to get you home is leaving you sleeping in your vehicle.
I recommend $500 in cash. 3-$100 bills and the rest in fives and ones. You don’t need tens. Two fives take the place of a ten. Twenties you wind up paying $20 for a 2.95 Twinkie because, “Sorry, man, no change but I can’t let you have the Twinkie free.”
$200 cash in fives and ones should carry you for the odd small purchases and the hundred dollars bills for a night’s room rent and a fill up of gas at $10 or $20 a gallon. Sure you might get your money back after a complaint to the local DA and you also might not, but it is better than any alternative I can think of other than holding up the clerk with a firearm and that can have much more serious after effects.
n today’s worthless money, a $20 bill tucked somewhere isn’t going to buy you very much. I haven’t priced hot dogs at the local gas station/convenience store but I would bet that a hot dog and a cup of their finest coffee will eat (bad pun) a good chunk of that $20. Even $100 probably will not get you a room in any kind of emergency situation. It might get you sleeping in a chair in the lobby which I suppose is better than sleeping in your car in a snowstorm.
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Be sure you add one of the gas addative/preservers to your gas or in several months it won’t even burn
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Sorry to say they are worth less than when you put them away. Printed money just doesn’t gain from collector interest. I had an uncirculated roll of Sacajaweia coins. The coin dealer said with a couple of them I could probably get grande straight coffee at Starklucks. He said the roll was worth exactly the face value but he recommended spending them as they presently will buy less than they bought when I acquired the roll. The goobermint has the presses running 24/7/366 just trying to keep up with the money in circulation. If everybody went down first thing tomorrow morning and tried to take out what they have in checking, savings and CDs, there wouldn’t be enough cash in circulation to handle the demand. That demands that no one wants to withdraw their retirement incomes and that no commercial companies want their cash supposedly on hand. All the trillions that the politicians and bureaucrats are talking about aren’t even physical currency. They are just a bunch of zeros and ones in some giant computer somewhere. With the recent action in Canada tying up funds of companies that have trucks involved in the boycott and freezing bank accounts of folks who are demonstrating and the banks being closed for a couple of days to make sure they have gotten everybody, keeping cash in the bank except to cover your bare expenses like rent, utility bills, child support and other mandated monthly expenses, keeping extra money in the bank doesn’t make sense. The interest rates being paid don’t keep up with the rapidly rising costs of gasoline and food. With the danger of the goobermint seizing or freezing bank accounts, your money is safer under your mattress unless you live in one of the crime infested neighborhoods then it is a toss-up. The real danger I see is the goobermint declaring that currency is no longer the currency of the Yew Ess of Ehh but we must use goobermint issued EBT cards for all purchases of necessities. If you are buying a yacht or a private aircraft, cash is still okay, but otherwise for the daily necessities, one must use the EBT card in lieu of other forms of commerce. You must turn in your cash for EBT credit but only 10¢ on the dollar. Turn in $100 and get $10 credit on your EBT card. It’s that or just get your basic monthly personal credit and use your currency for what it is worth, toilet paper.
All of that is without some kind of world disturbance like Yellowstone erupting in a giant volcanic 10 category eruption; an EMP strike courtesy of several of our BFFs, a X-9 category Solar storm the baths 80 percent of the earth in it damaging electrical activity for a week, burning out anything that carries electricity more than 10 yards or a meteor the size of the U.S.S. Kennedy (is it still afloat?) striking earth anywhere. Then, save your currency for when you run out of Costco’s softest. It will still be better than lamb’s quarter or whatever the plant substitute is.
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I enjoyed Nathaniel21’s posted set up. Very good set up for his situation and he didn’t say he camped there regularly; but I’m betting he does. However; what is realistic for him is not for others. City dwellers are going to be stuck where they are pretty much. I lived in the Central Valley in California for a number of years and had friends that noted their preps from time to time and most of them were going to shelter in place and protect what they had by any means necessary. My assessment of the possibility of escape from that area in a real bad situation started with I5, 99, and 205 would be clogged with people trying to get to somewhere other than there and they either would have been sucking up all the gasoline at the gas stations along the way or the gas stations would be filled with lines waiting to refuel and tempers would be short and crap would be occurring little or large at many locations. So if one didn’t have some kind of forewarning beyond what everyone else had; nobody was going to be going anywhere. The best plan for me was to be part of a group that supported each other’s needs. After that, on a personal level was; protection from danger (mostly some kind of raiders in that scenario), 3 months supply of water, food that me and my family would actually eat, medications, first aid supplies and emergency equipment, some kind of treats for morale, books for entertainment, communication devices (ham radio, shortwave fm radio with charging capability), a vehicle with a full tank of gas staged in the locked garage and camping equipment I and my family knew how to operate. A way of disposing of one’s waste biological and other is of importance as well. A small array of exercise equipment; a couple sizes of light to moderate dumb bells, a couple of kettle bells, a jump rope, some exercise bands, and a pair of walking or running shoes or both so as to provide a low impact exercise program to keep one as healthy as possible. That may sound extravagant but keeping one as fit as possible if stuck in one location is important to maintain one’s health and avoid injuries. After all that, then comes money; typically advisors note 3 to 6 months of daily expenses if possible. Usually that should be kept in a bank; but if the banks aren’t open; what do you do. So, maybe 1 month’s expenses if one can afford it stored at a safe location preferably away from one’s home because that’s where the “raiders” are going to hit first. 3 months of food sounds like a lot; but you may and probably will have to help supplement someone else in your group or shows up that you hadn’t counted on. They may not have been prepared or they may have been robbed. Who knows what may have happened to them but they are now part of your group. Or, you might need to trade some of your supplies to another group for something they have that you need. Anyway, most of us are not going to go anywhere in a shtf, not an SHTF, situation so preparing to shelter in place supporting each other in small groups is probably more reasonable. And the probability that some financial entity is going to come and throw one’s butt out of their home is probably low. A landlord may decide to throw a tenant out on their ear for non payment of rent but noting to the landlord that there ain’t too many other folks out there able to pay rent either may be something to point out if that should arise. One month minimum for cash in small denominations, preferably.
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OMG >> some ( 14 ) of the bills were $2.00 with consecutive serial numbers, series (1976 ) a collector told me they would only face value within my life time.
I don’t want to get you going but is it true that there’s no gold in Fort Knox 
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There are some conspiracy theororists that claim there are gold bricks in Fort Knox, but they have lead centers. Who knows? For all I know Fort Knox could be the last resting place of the pilots who crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947.
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Thanks, the only thing I know about money is, it hard to get and it goes easy, push a button boom isn’t gone.
If I go to my own banks ATM more than once a month they charge me to take my own money out.
I’ve been growing a small emergency financial buffer. Although a $100 bill might help to get home in an emergency, if things got a little crazy I made sure I have 1,5,10, and 20 denominations… I’d hate to go a week or three on a single bill of any denomination when the first negotiation simply would not offer back change.
Someone suggested having a stash of those mini-bar liqours for barter. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
Not to derail the conversation, but just before the pandemic I visited NY City. There was a recent law that required restaurants (I’m assuming shops too) to accept cash. It sounds like the local businesses had started transitioning away from it. During the pandemic, I wonder if that law remained.
Another side not… I know a few people in the construction and the auto industry who had often swapped work for work. Might be worth it for some (meaning me) to get a little more familiar with fixing things commonly needed. Plumbing, electrical, woodwork, and automotive are industries that have been overlooked by many, and prices in many areas reflect that… although some of it may have been propped up by certification/licensure/unions. Around here, it costs around $300 to have a licensed plumber replace a $10 toilet valve if you don’t know how to do it yourself. Around $250 to empty a trap under the sink.
Update: just had to get a new furnace… long story but repair was not a good option. I can get a few weeks supply of food, water, etc. However, some things, like normal house maintenance can cost a few thousand dollars per year (depending on the house). It’s probably a good idea to have enough cash on hand to get through an average year’s maintenance costs. Not just for if things go down, but if your bank account is wiped out from a hacker or unauthorized purchase. Even two months mortgage payments would be nice in case of layoffs… or even for deductibles on medical insurance during emergencies.
There are a lot of potential emergencies in life. Having a financial buffer in cash can help for a lot of situations.
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