Imagine you find yourself stuck in a city like Asheville after a hurricane hits. You were expecting some heavy rain, but you got complete devastation instead. You are a traveling musician and were just spending the night there on your way to a gig. You realize that you can't get out of town because of the flooding, but you have no food. Not knowing what else to do, you head to the grocery store to pick up some supplies. On the door is a sign that stops you in your tracks, "Cash Only". Damnit! So you look around for a functioning ATM to get some cash, and you see one with a line all the way down the block. At this point you are getting hungry, you haven't had breakfast or even any coffee. After waiting in line for 2 hours, you are almost to the ATM when you hear someone start cussing loudly. The ATM has run out of cash. Now you are starting to worry, you can't even look up where the next closest ATM is because you don't have cell service. So you wander around for a while and find a few ATMs, but they are all already out of cash. FUCK! You can't call anyone for help, you feel completely broke even though you have thousands of dollars in your bank account. You are now completely dependent on the generosity of others until services are restored.
These days I encounter so many people who don't carry cash at all. They are solely reliant on payment apps and debit/credit cards. They are comfortable with this because they assume they can always get some cash from an ATM if they really need it. The aftermath of the recent hurricanes as well as the Bank Of America outages serve as a potent reminder of the importance of carrying cash. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, you couldn't use credit cards or mobile payments to buy food or supplies and consequently there were very long lines at all functioning ATMs. Then you have to worry about the ATM running out of money before you can withdraw any cash. Natural disasters are not the only reason you can lose access to your cash. Network outages and bank errors can also easily leave you without any money. I'd much rather carry at least some cash instead of leaving all of it sitting in a bank account that I might or might not be able to access when I need to. Beyond potential logistical issues in accessing your money, it's absolutely essential to realize that once it's in the bank, your money is no longer your money. Many uninformed people actually believe that banks just put your money safely in a vault and it just sits there until you need it. The banks don't sit on your money, they lend most of it out to earn interest and keep a small amount of cash on hand to give to people who request a withdrawal. If a large amount of people wanted to withdraw all their money at once, banks wouldn't be able to fulfill all those withdrawals.
Anytime you give a third party control over your wealth, you are taking a risk. In the United States, the Federal Government insures most bank accounts up to 10,000 dollars, but the FDIC's funds are limited and can only handle a limited number of bank failures before they can no longer fulfill that promise. This has already come close to happening when multiple banks failed last year, and remains a possibility for the future. One of the reasons we didn't have a complete meltdown in the banking sector last year, was that the Federal Reserve created the Bank Term Funding Program as a band aid for all the banks on the brink of insolvency. This program allowed the banks to borrow money from the Fed using their treasury bonds as collateral, except the Fed valued them at par instead of their actual market value. The banking system is a house of cards that could collapse from the slightest of headwinds, and it is not something you should trust with a large amount of wealth in my opinion.
Thankfully, thanks to the good work of freedom tech pioneers like Satoshi Nakamoto, we can now take full control of our wealth and become our own bank. Because we have crypto, cash, and even gold, you can now live your life without ever trusting a bank. If you want to use a bank, that's your choice, personally I have opted out of the banking system and haven't had a bank account in many years. I live as private a life as possible which is much easier without using banks. I've decided to share some of the knowledge I have gained and give you some tips on how to live outside of the system without a bank account. There is a lot to go over so this will probably be the first of many different posts on the topic.
Cash is an absolutely essential tool for a free society so that people can easily transact privately and without anyone's permission. There are of course cryptocurrencies like Monero which are private, portable, and fungible like cash. However as great as Monero is, it still doesn't work without two essential elements, internet access and electricity. As freedom minded individuals we should be using cash and crypto as much as possible in our daily lives. If we get to the point where very few people are using cash at all, that will be a perfect opportunity for the state to swoop in and end physical cash entirely in favor of a CBDC. These will track and report every transaction you make, as well as give the state the ability to freeze your funds at any time or mandate what you can spend your own money on. The state is encouraging a cashless society for a reason, a cashless society is easier to control. Every time we use cash instead of a card, we are resisting this control.
If you are living off of cash and crypto, you may often have large amounts of cash. Remember, if you decide to be your own bank, one of the trade offs is that you have to protect your own money rather than relying on a bank to. In a bank account, your money may be safe from some forms of theft like muggings, but it's not safe from other thieves such as a government or even the bank itself. How do you keep this cash safe? Well you can stash some of it at home, just make sure you hide it very well. You don't want to put it under your mattress, or in a desk drawer. You definitely don't want to put it in a small safe, if someone breaks in they will just grab that and break into it later. Even a large safe bolted to the floor is going to be a target, but it's better than not bolting it to the floor. What you really want to do is have it somewhere that no one is ever going to find it unless you have told them exactly where it is. It's preferable to keep it on your property but not actually in your house, in case of a fire. It is just paper after all. However, you don't want to have too much of your cash at home, because what if one day you can't go home and get it? What if you can never go back home? These are possibilities you need to consider. Remember, if you are taking full control on your own money, then you are responsible for preparing for everything that could possibly go wrong.
Fortunately, carrying a lot of cash on you relatively safely is possible! I have routinely carried thousands of dollars on my person for years without ever having a issue or losing a single dollar, despite living in a major city where crime is commonplace. Ten grand in hundreds weighs less than quarter of a pound, so you will barely notice the weight of it. You are going to want to get a belt with a secret zipper pocket that goes all the way around the back of the belt. You can fold up at least a couple thousand dollars in hundreds and put them in there. As long as you don't over stuff the belt, then no one will be able to see that your belt has anything inside of it without a close inspection. With these belts, usually you can get away with folding two hundred dollar bills together several times until they are folded up into a small rectangle, then you just line sets of two hundreds all the way around the belt. Sometimes you can do three bill sets, but you want to make sure it doesn't make a noticeable bulge in your belt. You are then going to want to get a tourist wallet with a neck strap. I think they are designed to be worn above your waist, but if you aren't wearing a coat or hoodie than it would be obvious that you have something under your shirt. So instead of that, I let it hang low and put it down my pants so that it kind of rests in my crotch area or on my thigh. Unless you are wearing tight pants or a tight skirt, nobody will be able to tell that you have a tourist wallet on. You can fit a lot of cash in this, I also like to put an encrypted flash drive with a back up of everything important and a hardware wallet in there. For extra points, also carry a faraday pouch with a burner phone in it that has no ties to your identity (you can just stick this in your bag or where ever). This phone is just so if you ever need to disappear in a hurry, you can ditch your daily driver phone but still have a device ready to go that won't be tracked.
You can also build a secret compartment into your shoes in addition to the secret money belt or as an alternative to it. I don't how much money you can fit in there but probably a decent amount if it's in large bills. Hidden pockets in coats or the linings of coats are also an option. I wouldn't put money in your socks or underwear, that's too obvious. Sometimes you might encounter an absolute emergency where you need to protect some cash in a hurry. In those situations, there's always your own personal suitcase. Roll it up as tight as you can, double wrap it in two condoms, the inner condom should be unlubricated, so that the lubrication doesn't get all over your cash, and the outer condom should be lubricated to make things easier. Then stick it up your ass if you are male, or your vagina if you are female. You might want to practice this once or twice at home. Yes it's unpleasant, but when its a choice between losing 10,000 dollars or sticking it up your asshole or vagina, I'll stick it up there any day. If you don't have condoms available, any kind of plastic bag will work in a pinch, just don't use anything that might cut you up. You gotta stick it all the way up there, and you can just shit it back out later (or just pull it out if you're a woman). Just remember not to flush until you retrieve it! Carry a couple of condoms just in case you ever have to do this and hope you don't. For a good example of how this can save your ass (haha, get it?), watch the amazing remake of Papillon.
You have three main threats that you have to worry about when carrying large amounts of cash. They are thieves, law enforcement, and your own dumb ass. To protect yourself from all three it is essential to also carry a regular wallet, with whatever amount of money that you can afford to lose without it being devastating to your finances. Your ID (if you have one) and whatever you need for that day's expenses goes in this wallet, and it also needs to have simultaneously enough cash in it to satisfy any muggers and not enough cash to make any cops suspicious if you have to get your ID out in front of them. Cops usually become immediately suspicious of anyone with large amounts of cash, and if you are in certain countries they will try to get a bribe if they know you have money. In the United States, they may try to seize your cash with civil asset forfeiture based on even the "suspicion" that you are a drug dealer or some other kind of criminal. So it's important to not reveal your belt stash or your neck wallet if at all possible. This regular wallet is supposed to be a decoy for muggers as well. If someone shoves a gun in your face and asks for your wallet, then you can quickly hand them this decoy wallet. The idea is that they will see that it has a decent amount of cash in it, and then they will hopefully run off satisfied and not investigate further. The goal is to keep them from discovering your other two cash stashes in your belt and your tourist wallet. It's a good idea to just cooperate right away, using the decoy wallet, so that they don't just pistol whip you, knock you out, and then search you. This is especially true if you are unarmed. If you are armed, then it's up to you if you want to try and stop them that way.
If you have a car, encounters with law enforcement are more of an issue than if you walk, bike, or use public transportation. If you do get pulled over, don't ever voluntarily consent to a search of your car. Your rights during an encounter with the police are different depending on if you are driving a car, a passenger in a car, a pedestrian, or on public transit. Remember, if you are carrying large amounts of cash, the goal is to not encounter police in the first place so that you don't ever have to be questioned about your cash. If you do ever get searched by law enforcement, and they discover either of your secret cash stashes beyond your regular wallet, they will inevitably ask you why you have so much cash. It's your choice whether to say anything or not, but personally I would just say that I don't trust banks and start talking about recent bank failures. Don't say anything about yourself other than that you don't trust banks, as they will try to use anything you say against you. The goal is to make them dismiss you as just a paranoid weirdo and not suspect you of a crime. While it is not illegal to carry large amounts of cash, some law enforcement officers will still try to find any reason to take your cash. Other law enforcement officers will straight up rob you and unfortunately it will be your word against theirs, and you will probably be fucked in that situation. So go out of your way to not encounter law enforcement in the first place, if you sense that you may be in a situation or area that is likely to be visited by them, leave immediately. Always remember to pay your fare if you're using public transportation, you don't want to end up in an encounter because you didn't cough up a few dollars. In a future guide, we will go over what your rights are and what exactly to do when you do encounter law enforcement in much more depth.
This decoy wallet has a third function beyond just protecting you from law enforcement and muggers, and that is protecting you from yourself. This is the wallet you are going to be interacting with and pulling out all day, you aren't going to be messing with your tourist wallet or belt stash unless for some reason you absolutely need to. So if you do accidentally lose your wallet or leave it somewhere, it's going to be your decoy wallet. This will still suck, but at least your main stash of cash will be okay. Now if you do need to get something out of your belt or tourist wallet, do it in a private controlled place such as a bathroom stall. Double check to make sure you have re-secured everything properly before leaving the stall.
If you are going to be carrying a lot of cash around, you are also going to want to dress down. Don't wear jewelry or fancy watches, don't wear expensive clothing, you want to look like you are just another BAM (broke ass motherfucker). Never show off that you have money! Don't tell anyone about how you carry cash (I guess I just broke this rule, but you definitely shouldn't). Avoid bad areas of town if at all possible, and don't walk about alone late at night if you can avoid it.
It's up to you how much cash you are comfortable with carrying around, and what percentage of your wealth you want to keep in cash. Everyone's situations are different. If you think there is a decent chance that one day you might have to leave in a hurry than you probably should have more cash ready to go than your average pleb. It goes without saying, but don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Don't have all your wealth in cash, store most of it in crypto. It's way easier to protect a seed phrase than it is to protect large amounts of cash. You just want to have enough cash on hand to pay your bills and expenses with, as well as extra cash for grid down emergencies in which you won't be able to access your crypto. If you do feel the need to have a bank account, you shouldn't keep very much money in it. If you do decide to have a significant amount of money in the banking system, at the very least split it up among multiple banks.
One of the wonderful things about cash, is it's very easy to split up into multiple stashes. Keep some of your cash at home, some on your person, and some in various other locations. You can rent a storage unit and keep some cash in there as well. You can always have a trusted friend rent the storage unit for you, so that it's not in your name if you feel the need to. Or you can just bury some cash in the woods and keep the exact GPS coordinates so that you can retrieve it easily. Don't make your system too complicated, you want to be able to easily retrieve all your cash if you need it.
Remember cash is fragile! Don't just bury 20 grand in a ziplock bag or you might be very disappointed when you retrieve it. Cash needs to be protected from the elements, from people, and from animals and insects. Store it in airtight rodent proof containers.
If you do hide cash in various places, you need to at least consider what happens if you die or even get amnesia. Is there anyone you can trust with the locations of your cash and crypto? Do you want all that cash to just rot or end up getting sold in a storage unit auction, or for your crypto to be locked away in an inaccessible wallet for the rest of time? If you do store cash in a storage unit, make sure you pay for at least several months at a time to minimize the risk of defaulting on the unit. One method I am considering looking into is some kind of dead man's switch message that will get sent to a loved one if I ever don't reset it on a regular basis. That way if something does happen to me, the message will get sent automatically and my loved one can access my cash and crypto. Luckily I don't have to worry too much about this yet because I don't even have enough money yet to be stashing it all over town! One day I will though, I am determined to build significant wealth outside of the system and use it as a tool to live as a free a life as possible. I hope you will join me on this journey!
Now you know my system for safely carrying cash. I know it works because I have managed to safely carry cash, a little gold, and a hardware wallet on my person for many years. Hopefully this will continue to be the case but maybe not since I just gave away all my secrets on social media. I am willing to take this risk though if I can help a few people live more easily outside of the system. Luckily, nobody reads my blog anyways, so please subscribe if you want more tips on living a private life outside of the system! In our next guide we will look at Monero and how to use it to pay your bills.
