Secret Stashes

Why have secret stashes for your money and other valuables? That's where this excerpt from the book A Survival Guide For Interesting Times starts. The following is taken from Chapter Eight.

There may come a time when the banks fail and the Government cannot return everyone's money immediately. In fact, such times have already come. During the Savings and Loan Crisis of the later 1980s and early 1990s 745 savings and loan associations (also known as "thrifts") failed, and some depositors had to wait months to get their money returned.

One preventative measure worth considering then, is to stash some cash just in case. A safe deposit box is one possible place to do this. They generally are accessible (or at least have been) even when banks are closed due to failure.

But it is nice to have some cash available at or near home, in case all else fails. Most of the places that come to mind for these secret stashes are common knowledge to criminals, so get creative and disperse your money among several locations for maximum safety. You may also want to consider stashes of gold, silver or silver coins as security against the risk of a currency failure.

Buried Stashes

It can be risky to bury cash or valuables away from your home, because you cannot monitor the stash. A storm might dislodge it if it is near a stream, or animals could dig it up, or humans could recognize the tell-tale signs of a buried treasure. On the other hand, burglars most often target your house, so having some money buried out in the woods or hills might not be such a bad idea.

Burying a stash shallowly under a rock is one way to keep the evidence of digging hidden. Move a heavy rock, dig a hole underneath, placing the dirt carefully onto a garbage bag or tarp. Place a peanut butter jar or screw-top vitamin bottle full of cash or silver or gems in the hole, and fill it in. Dirt that doesn't fit back in should be carefully carried away and disposed of elsewhere, and the rock should be replaced exactly how it was.

You need to be able to remember where you bury such a stash, but marking trees in the area can give away the location to others. Instead, choose a location that is near an easily recognized landmark, like an unusual rock formation or three trees growing together. You can also mark the coordinates using a GPS unit, but disguise the numbers you write down in some way so others won't recognize them as coordinates.

A hole underneath an old stump can work as well, but be careful to leave no obvious traces of your digging. Be sure it is a stump that will be there for at least a few years to come. Throw some loose leaves around the base to further hide any signs that you dug there.

Small containers are best, because a smaller hole will be needed to hide them securely. $500 in folded $50 bills fits easily into a vitamin bottle. I once found a dollar hidden in a plastic pop bottle in a pile of rocks, with the plastic getting very brittle from exposure to the sun. It was a lesson on the importance of burying thin plastic containers very well if you want them to last.

Burying some cash or cash equivalents (gold, silver, gems) in your yard is another option. This makes your secret stashes easier to monitor and access and remember the location of. Be sure that you are not seen in the act of burying the valuables...

Chapter Eight continues with:

- Why it can be useful to have secret stashes in other cities.

- A list of places in and around the house where you can hide money and valuables.

- Why gold, silver and other money substitutes may be safer than cash.

A Survival Guide For Interesting Times is one of the ebooks in The Secrets Package.
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Lie Detection
Little Known Facts
Secret Stashes
Secret Information
The Polygraph Test