You nailed it.
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People who’ve lived through losing all their savings when a bank collapses and just informs you that your money is gone don’t forget the experience.
Here in Argentina, we’re 20 years past the big collapse and devaluation of 2001, and people are just really getting back to a place where it’s more common for the working and middle-classes to save money in banks and financial instruments than to stash it at home, though I would venture an educated guess that most people do hedge their bets and continue to do some at home and some in banks, just to be safe.
The other solution is the old Italian way of “invest in bricks” meaning build additions or expansions to your property whenever you have money since those will be worth something down the road.
Luckily I’m not successful enough to really ever be in for more than a penny ante.
Another type of fallout from this is that it’s pretty dang hard to stash anything in your home in this country, because everyone has a lot of experience finding the perfect stash and are gonna find yours right quick:
-“Between the pages of certain books on my enormous bookshelf”
-“Haha! First place I’d have looked!”
-“okay, a little harder. I’ll wrap it in something and drop it in the toilet tank.”
“Gah! Are you looney? Easiest stash ever.”
-“Fine, fine, inside the cavity of a frozen chicken in my freez…”
“You really want to get all your money stolen, don’t you?”
-“No, but what the hell? Okay, deep in the bottom of the rice jar.”
-“Now you’re just making me laugh.”
-“The sugar?”
-“Why don’t you just leave it on the table in an envelope labeled “all my cash money”?”
-“Inside the wall behind and adjacent to an electrical socket?”
-“ooh, look at me. I only get robbed by thieves who don’t own a screwdriver”
-“go to hell”
-“okay, but taking your money with me”
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Where I live, you’re lucky if the construction materials they steal weren’t part of your house yet.
People I know who have little rustic weekend cabins or some other property that isn’t inhabited full time tell tales of arriving to find they have no pipes or wiring, and sometimes even the toilet and faucets/sinks have be absconded with.
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Some people have all the luck. The only thing I ever found there was the Old Man’s accursed, still-beating heart.
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Somehow, episodes of Ghost Hunters are never quite as interesting.
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That happens out in the far desert Landers / Johnson Valley often. We live in town, and not much happens due to full time residents. The farther you go out the cheaper the land, but with it comes the tweekers/desperate. Meth is still an issue in the High Desert, I don’t think they are cooking it here, the San Bernardino County flies planes hunting hot spots, I haven’t heard of a lab being busted in a few years, they moved on to easier pickings. But homeless folks make their way up this high from the Palm Springs area, and they get desperate for water/shelter/food, hence break ins, and property theft. We have made friends that live another 30 miles on out, they never leave with out setting the cameras / security system, you have to make them work for it, that usually pushes them onto lower baring fruit. It’s been a learning curve for us for sure, but zero issues with that crap thankfully.
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Possibly similar to the formula commercial safe crackers use. It’s the choice of the owner: either an up-front, fixed fee, or a percentage of the any money and (assessed value of) valuables found.
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I mean, I’m happy they found the money and all, but that’s a very high clue-to-puzzle ratio. This is like the warm-up exercise in an escape room.
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I’m showing $13M S&P 500 Periodic Reinvestment Calculator, With Dividends– DQYDJ
Please show your work.
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No, not really. What Are 1957 $1 Silver Certificates Worth? (pcgs.com)**
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Still, that can add up if there are a lot of notes in good condition, and there’s more demand among collectors for higher denominations.
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This is like taking your car to the mechanic and they fix it in a couple minutes with minimal effort then bill you the 1/2 hour minimum labor charge. Sure yeah it was easy to do but they knew how to do it. Paying people for their knowledge is a good thing.
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So, a good way to turn your $46K in $51K? With a lot of work on old-currency exchange websites?
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It is what it is, man. They squirrelled the money away decades ago, at a time when very few people had investment portfolios. Hindsight is 20/20. Try to look on the bright side: at least hyperinflation didn’t turn their money worthless, which could have happened with other currencies over the same timeframe.
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Looks like those uncirculated silver certificates are worth about $6.50 each. Here’s a lot of 100 from 1957 for $650.
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IRS: your taxable income is 33% of the take less deductibles. Ante up.
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The calculus is there, do your own work.
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Three people., one a carpenter, couldn’t find this. Wow. If you’re afraid of financial collapse, why store bills? Gold, baby!
Weird. But yeah, I agree with the others that he probably had reasonable concerns about theft.
I’d check closer to the house or near any landmarks for the jars of coins etc…
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