# Hold Physical Cash Physical cash is the simplest and arguably the most private paymen t system. If the government still has the power, you can use it even if the grid fully goes down. In contrast, credit cards, bank transfers an d even "decentralized" cryptocurrencies will not work in that situ ation. Also you cannot directly pay with precious metals. Sadly we don't live in gold standard. In addition, you can use cash for almost everything offline. You c an use it on a black market. You can make even a remote payment by sending cash in a mail. IRS could not exactly know how much physic al cash you hold and spent. It makes a blackbox. It's like an oasi s in our "transparent" world. The obvious shortcomings are that it depends on the government and it is not immune to the inflation. For the latter, yes it is not a great store of value. It kind a wo rks well though. But the main purpose of cash is payment. Not stor e of value. For the former, that's definitely true. But again we don't live in gold standard. We can't pay with precious metals. On the other han d, cryptocurrencies depend on electricity and the internet. So not hing is inherently better. You should mix them all. For these reasons, I will go crazy and store at least $12,000 of c ash at home. $12,000 = (1 year) * ($1,000 per month). Of course th e amount will constantly change due to the inflation.