How much do you have around the house?

[brainsmile]

Recently I was thinking about how much money have stored at the house. You know for emergencies etc. I know that asian parents tend to hide money in the weirdest places (personal experience)

I know there's a set of rules for storing for emergencies such as job loss and such. I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about cash lying around the house that is for specific use only.

I generally have about $1000 lying around in a safe place at home just for neighborhood garage/estate sales and if my wife wants to go shopping or needs money for something.

Am I the only one?

[Kim]

It's not really for emergencies, but we have a big jug that we save our spare change in. It is so heavy that I can't lift it. The kids are saving to go to Disneyland.

[Cubsfan]

Why keep too much money on me? First, I pay for most things with my debit card, and second, the ATM isn't too far away. Guess I almost never spend $1000 in a day.

[brainsmile]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134358389_penny25m.html

A penny saved is a penny loved

By John Zebrowski
Seattle Times staff reporter



'I just love pennies. There's no rational explanation.' - Sylvester Neal.

AUBURN — Sylvester Neal doesn't see anything particularly special about pennies. He likes the way they shine in the light, and he likes the way they've changed over the years, from the Indian head of the late 19th century to the Abraham Lincoln penny in 1909, with small variations since.

He's a fan of the 1943 penny, which is gray because the government minted it from steel to save copper for the war effort. Neal has several of these. He's a bigger fan of the rare copper 1943, which has fetched $25,000 from collectors but has so far eluded him.

But ask him why he kept collecting pennies, over 40 years, until he'd gathered more than 1 million, sneaking them into his basement so his wife wouldn't catch him, and he's stumped.

"I don't even understand my own fascination with them," says Neal, 58, who recently moved from Anchorage, where he retired as Alaska's fire marshal 10 years ago. "I just love pennies. There's no rational explanation."

Not entirely true. Press him on the penny thing, and it turns out the great passion of his life — next to his wife of 32 years, Doris — owes as much to the weather as to the object itself. Neal, who is originally from Austin, Texas, was drafted into the Army right after graduating from high school. He had started collecting change his senior year, but it was really no more than just throwing the coins in his pocket into a coffee can.

The Vietnam War was on, and Neal worried he'd be sent to fight in Southeast Asia. Instead, he ended up in Fairbanks, where winters are long and daylight can be as little as four hours a day.

"I wanted to leap over the desk and kiss the sergeant when he told me I wasn't going to Vietnam, but boy, was it cold in Fairbanks," he says. "Collecting pennies kept me from going crazy."

Neal spent 13 years in Fairbanks, heading security for the airport after leaving the Army. He and his wife had two sons, Keith and Todd, went on many camping trips and turned the basement into the penny room.

Slowly, he began filling containers — Gatorade bottles, glass cowboy boots, a wooden buffalo with a jar for a belly, small fish tanks, huge water-cooler bottles, a Cardhu scotch bottle — until he had become a collector of them, too.

Neal is a volume collector, going for big numbers rather than concentrating on the hard-to-find.

Over the years, he has bought pennies from banks and church fund-raisers. He has kept a secret bank account where every month he'd slip $50 to buy pennies, until they took up much of his basement. He walks with his head down, eyes fixed on the ground. He believes in take a penny, but never leave a penny.

Things began to change, though, in 1981, when he received the "Hygrade Penny Coin Collector" for his birthday. The book provides pockets to fill with pennies from different years. Neal soon added other books. They provided structure for what was then just a hobby. Now, with a goal — to collect every type of penny since 1909 — pennies took on a whole new role for him.

Flipping through a book, Neal stops on the picture of a 1955 penny stamped twice by accident so there are two dates on it. It's very rare.

"I've been through a million pennies and still haven't found one," he says. "Not one."

Collecting pennies is not a hobby for weaklings. A single penny can be lifted by a baby. But get a lot of them together and, like a group of kids on spring ice, their combined weight can become an issue. At its height this summer, Neal's collection weighed about 16,000 pounds.

This was a problem, because Neal and his wife were moving to Auburn. Neal was elected as governor of the Pacific Northwest district of the Kiwanis club, a role that would be easier to fill a little farther south.

Neal had no intention of leaving the collection. But freight companies would charge $1,600 to ship it, and he would need a minimum of a U-Haul truck and a trailer to haul it himself. With the urging of his wife, he decided to cash in all but 100,000 or so of his stash. Over several weeks, he hauled pennies in his wheelbarrow to the local supermarket, where they were changed in at Coinstar machines, setting the company's record for penny cash-ins at 792,141.

It was an emotional time.

"Forty years of work," he says, shaking his head slowly. "When I was putting them in that machine, I was almost crying. It was like getting rid a part of me."

Neal has a new plan. If it took 40 years to collect 1 million pennies while he was working, he should be able to do it in half the time now that he's retired. In his penny room and the closet in the guest room are empty jars waiting to be filled.

His wife, who has been a minor obstacle to the collection over the years, is not a huge fan of this new phase in the collection. "I might just have to kill him," she says, emitting a laugh that sounds only half-serious. "We will have to have a discussion."

Deep down, though, she knows she's beat. Over the decades, she has tolerated the collection because, she says, her husband could have far worse vices. But a million pennies in 20 years?

"Ugh," she says, as Neal sneaks a few pennies from her wallet.

"Now," he responds, "I can be full time in the search for those elusive pennies."

"Elusive ones?" she asks.

"They're all elusive."

[mojo]

i voted without considering some uncached checks i got around the joint. so cash is one figure, and total money is another :shrug:

[brainsmile]

Originally posted by Cubsfan
Why keep too much money on me? First, I pay for most things with my debit card, and second, the ATM isn't too far away. Guess I almost never spend $1000 in a day.


well neither do I... well unless we're buying furniture or something

[mcs328]

I just have loose change lying around and a small plastic ghost thingy I put change in.

[mojo]

yeah...i never keep too much cuz i got the cards on me...

[Kim]

Shoot, I forgot to count uncashed checks too. Make mine $500-1000 instead of $100-300

[brainsmile]

reset! :P

[whitak24]

uncashed checks don't really count to me, because they're just sitting there till i get my lazy ass to the bank.

other than that, i usually have under $50 in cash in my wallet and then a bunch of random change.

[brainsmile]

what's with all the uncashed checks?

[attgig]

i'm too much of a plastic person.
and i have a couple pinecone uncached checks at my home.

[Nija]

right now we have about $200 saved up for our Trip Jar, not including loose change. We have it so we can be spontaneous and just go out and have a mini-vacation and not really have to worry about it. Right now it's actually being used to save up for our Vegas Trip at the end of June :D

[NuTs62]

I used to collect pennies :) I still have that collection. The oldest pennies were from around 1900 or so :)

As for money around the house, besides coin jars, I don't have much stashed. Unless you consider the $2 bills I collect. :)

[revil]

I have 20 million in gold bullion hidden just in case. Plus them feds can't charge tax on what i don't have. :shifty:

[Bires]

Originally posted by attgig
i'm too much of a plastic person.

Me too. A few bucks in change cluttering up my desk, but that's about it. I would like to go to a cashless society...albiet that would mean the homeless would be even *more* SOL. ;)

However, I have a solution-one that would work well for all parties involved...
I figure the government could issue all the homeless and Santa Claus fundraisers portable, wireless thumb scanners, so when they pan handle you outside of grocery stores, you would just touch their scanner, donating a buck, without the messy wallet fumbling while you're trying to balance your 7$ sandwich and $3 cup of coffee. :P

[brainsmile]

what if someone just cuts off the finger? :eek:

[ShawnLee]

So... You have a thousand bucks just sitting around your house? Mind if I come over some time?

[irwin]

Had over $2k in my shoebox o' money about a week ago before I went to the bank. :shifty:

[ShawnLee]

I used to keep my cash in an old Bubble-Tape case. My mom thought it was trash and threw it away. Man was I ever pissed. Worst way to lose eleven dollars.

[brainsmile]

Originally posted by ShawnLee105
So... You have a thousand bucks just sitting around your house? Mind if I come over some time? uh....no

[Kevster]

I keep about $500 in a safe place as part of my earthquake preparedness kit. The reason for that is because ATMs generally aren't available after a big one like Loma Prieta or Northridge. Also, telecommunications are generally overtaxed or down after a major disaster such as an earthquake making plastic virtually useless.

[attgig]

Originally posted by passwird
Had over $2k in my shoebox o' money about a week ago before I went to the bank. :shifty:

how many times have you watched better luck tomorrow?

[brainsmile]

that's a lot of money passwird... next time you want to go to the bank let us know. We'll escort you to the bank. :P

[whitak24]

Originally posted by brainsmile
what's with all the uncashed checks?
well, i don't get direct deposit of my paychecks (since the company i work for employs me and one other person, he doesn't exactly have a high-tech payroll system). i also get checks from pinecone and rebates, etc.

but there's no bank that's really convenient for me to go to. so i just don't make it to the bank all that frequently. so the checkes kind of build up. right now, i probably have around $4100 sitting around that i need to take to the bank.

[bachviet]

I never keep more than $100 around the house except the day before leaving for LV.

[attgig]

Originally posted by whitak24
right now, i probably have around $4100 sitting around that i need to take to the bank.

WOW!
what...and you're saying you're getting paid less than you were before????

dude...that's a heckava lotta checks not to have in the bank account. i'm assuming that you have more in your bank account to be comfortable that you haven't deposited that yet.

[brainsmile]

Originally posted by whitak24

i also get checks from pinecone and rebates, etc.



what's pinecone?

[WhiskeyPapa]

We use the "envelope system" for budgeting, so on payday, I'll get about $600 in cash to fill the envelopes. Most of it is gone by the next payday.

Also, Mr Million Pennies - he's collected $10,000 in pennies over 40 years. That's $20 a month. If he had put $20 a month into good mutual funds over the last 40 years he'd now have $237,648.40 (assuming 12% growth - about the average over the past 40 years.)

I hope he likes the pennies now.

[whitak24]

Originally posted by attgig


WOW!
what...and you're saying you're getting paid less than you were before????

dude...that's a heckava lotta checks not to have in the bank account. i'm assuming that you have more in your bank account to be comfortable that you haven't deposited that yet.
i haven't been to the bank in about 10 weeks.

and a year ago, i was pulling down some very nice $$, at least by my standards. now, my income is pretty pedestrian (although still significantly more than one might make flipping burgers).

[whitak24]

Originally posted by brainsmile


what's pinecone?
pinecone research.

i do market studies for them, they send me $5 checks for each one i do. it's a nice setup :D

[brainsmile]

Originally posted by kb0wwp
We use the "envelope system" for budgeting, so on payday, I'll get about $600 in cash to fill the envelopes. Most of it is gone by the next payday.

Also, Mr Million Pennies - he's collected $10,000 in pennies over 40 years. That's $20 a month. If he had put $20 a month into good mutual funds over the last 40 years he'd now have $237,648.40 (assuming 12% growth - about the average over the past 40 years.)

I hope he likes the pennies now. 12% growth is a bit high realistically

[raimin]

Originally posted by whitak24

pinecone research.

i do market studies for them, they send me $5 checks for each one i do. it's a nice setup :D

i just deposited 5 pinecone checks yesterday

too lazy to deposit 5 bucks at a time

[WhiskeyPapa]

Originally posted by brainsmile
12% growth is a bit high realistically
Maybe right now, at this moment. But 12% is the historic average of the stock market over the last 40 years. Since we're dealing with a hypothetical past investment, it's easy to figure the interest rate. Of course, my calculations don't include taxes.

Here's (http://www.americanfunds.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=afweb/shareholder/fund/fundDetail/body&fundNumber=4) an example of a mutual fund that is at least that old. Notice it has a yield of 12.69% since inception, including sales charge.

I'm not saying if he deposited it today, and calculating the amount 40 years from now...

[brainsmile]

well I think it's probably better just to go with the s&p historic average...

Historic Earnings Growth: 10.5%

[WhiskeyPapa]

The point is, these "change hoarding" stories come around a couple times a year. It's always about some old geezer who has a truckload of coins.

A few months ago, there was a local story about a Minnesota guy who saved every single coin he received for 70 years. The guy said his grandfather "taught him the value of a nickel." He donated the money to his church. It took 4 truckloads to get the stuff out of his basement. I don't remember the total amount, but it was $50k more or less.

Some radio talk show host had a financial guy on and they calculated the value if it had been properly invested. It would have been several million dollars.

Bottom line - the old guy got bad advice from his grandpappy.