Hacker News Reader

Comment by theamk | Hacker News Reader

Well, yeah. Let's say someone has $100K in cash, in their home. What is their profession?

All of the answers I can think of are criminal.

Computer programmer. You just need to have been in a country that's had a civil war to realise how useful a pile of cash is for getting out quickly.

you are losing a lot of value to inflation to support that much liquidity

If you live in an unstable situation this 5-10% downside per year can end up saving the lives of you and your family.

Almost everyone I know if fairly stable third world countries keep about half a month of expenses in cash even after digital payments are predominant.

I'm alive because my father did the same. How much value is your life worth?

This mindset can only be born of stability. If your country descends into chaos, having money on hand is better than having money in a bank, and therefore, not on hand.

Silver coins is my bet. I'm not a prepper by any means, but I always keep some silver on hand. If nothing else, they make good gifts for kids. They feel like little pirates when you give them silver coins.

I buy, restore, and sell woodworking and metalworking tools and vehicles. If I did it full time I could have that much on hand. I think I have like 25k in case a really good deal pops up, and it's a very side gig.

In which case you really shouldn't tell a public forum about it.

Maybe it's my jaded European mindset, but - rich people have been a target since the dawn of civilization, flaunting wealth is a good way to attract attention from bad people.

The chances of someone finding me through this public forum are very low. Following this username takes you to a person from Reddit who I am not. If you follow the clues in my posts, you'll narrow it down to a farmer who also works in colleges, and who lived in the Midwest at some point, but doesn't anymore, and whose parents live in an area of the world that is kind of arid. There's a lot of those type of people.

I'm more concerned about locals finding out. That's why I don't talk about the cash I have on hand in my real life, ever.

I feel like that's relatively easy to do?

That's insane and irresponsible. There's a reason that you can't make large "cash" purchases in physical cash - even with a certified or cashier's check you're limited to under $50k total or $100k/day before getting into private banking where your limits are higher.

> There's a reason that you can't make large "cash" purchases in physical cash

Seems like you can?

>There's a reason that you can't make large "cash" purchases in physical cash

I don't understand what you mean with this.

And also, yes you can? I've purchased cattle (~100k) and vehicles (5-40k) with cash.

It's not insane and irresponsible. I legitimately do not understand your attitude with that. As long as you don't walk around with 100k in your hand waving it around, what's the danger? The world isn't as bad as the news would have you believe.

Also, Some people prefer doing business without involving electronics. I've bought things using cash, silver, canning jars, and baseball cards. I prefer to barter for goods and labor, but some people prefer cash. What's the problem with that?

Had a Ukrainian girlfriend that had $25,000 in her go bag, just in case. She was not even close to wealthy and that was a considerable fraction of her yearly salary. She was the complete opposite of a criminal.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com