hiding money

Be Careful When Hiding Your Fortune

March 31, 2017 By Jennifer Derrick 9 Comments

I used to think it was pretty rare for someone to “lose” a fortune by accident. But lately a few incidents, both public and personal, made me realize that this is a bigger problem than I thought. You may have seen the news about the woman who threw her mother’s mattress away — the same mattress that was stuffed with one million dollars of her mother’s savings. Not too long ago I had an acquaintance “lose” about $200,000 in gold that he had stashed in his house and forgotten about. That is until about six months after the sale of the house when the new owners reported their great find. (No, they didn’t give it back, operating under the finder’s keepers rule.)

And just recently a relative died suddenly and his house went up on the market. One day a friend of my relative’s asked his father, “Hey, did you find that, ‘special item’ that he’d hidden in the house?” The father looked blank. “What item?” The friend went on to describe a rare, expensive (about $100,000), piece of jewelry owned by my relative. Fortunately, the friend knew the hiding place in the house and they were able to retrieve it. It was a near thing, too, because an offer was placed on the house a couple of days later.

You hear all the time about people who move into a house and discover a fortune, or who buy furniture at a yard sale and find cash taped to the bottom of the drawers. Then there are the people who find money buried in the yard or stashed in the trunk of their “new” used car. Even the tales of people finding $1,000 in the pocket of a coat bought from Goodwill are common. People lose a lot of money this way every day and it makes me wonder: How is this possible?

Risks of Hiding Your Fortune

Admittedly I’m a fanatic about my money and valuable possessions and I don’t take the risk of hiding anything in my house. Bank vaults are my best friends. My wishes regarding my possessions and their locations are spelled out in various legal documents. But many people feel safer keeping things in their homes or cars. Which I can understand, to a point. It is nice knowing that you have total control of your money and possessions.

But you run big risks with this approach. Obviously fire is the biggest threat. But you also have other disasters and theft to worry about. And then what happens if you simply forget about it? I can’t imagine forgetting about hundreds of thousands of dollars but I guess it’s somewhat common, judging by the number of people who report losses and finds. Or what happens if dementia hits and you have no choice but to forget? Or you get in an accident and can’t remember things? What happens if you die suddenly and you’re the only one who knows about your valuable items. Maybe you wanted that jewelry to be sold to pay for a relative’s education, but it’s not in your will and no one even knows you have the item. Your valuable jewelry will likely end up being found many years from now and it will belong to someone else.

Remember These Things When Hiding Your Fortune

So what can you do to protect yourself from inadvertently losing a fortune? Here are some thoughts:

Don’t keep stuff in your house: Keep your valuable things in a bank vault and note in your will where that box is located. Keep money in a bank. It’s understandable that some people are afraid of the banking system, but it’s still far safer than your mattress or under the floorboards and it’s easier for your heirs to track down.
If you must keep stuff in your house, keep a record of it: Put the location of your stash in your will so that if you die suddenly or lose your memory, your heirs can find your things and dispose of them the way you intended. It may also help to keep a master list somewhere accessible and keep it updated as you hide new things. You don’t have to list exactly what’s where, just some notes like, “Behind the third rafter from the garage end of the house,” can be enough to trigger your memory, or the curiosity of those tasked with disposing of your assets should you die.
Tell a trusted someone: Pick a person you trust completely such as a family member, a lawyer, a clergyman, etc. to tell what you have and where it is. That way, if something happens to you and you can’t speak for yourself, that person can locate your items for you.
Note your items in your living will or trust: Think about this scenario: You’re disabled and your memory is gone, whether through accident or aging. You have hundreds of thousands of dollars lining the walls of your house that could buy you good care at a nice nursing home. However, your family only knows about the bank account that has $10 in it. So you’re put at the mercy of Medicaid and you’re stuck in a budget nursing home. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone knew about all that money? Oh, yeah.
Thoroughly check and clean out anything before you sell it or give it away: Go through furniture drawers and coat pockets. Check under and inside everything. Look inside the linings of purses or jewelry boxes. Go over your car in detail before you trade it in. Before you close on the sale of your house, go through it one more time, poking at the floorboards and checking the rafters. You may not remember putting things in places (especially if you’ve lived somewhere for many years), so a good check before selling is warranted.
Don’t tell everyone: While you want a few trusted people to know about your affairs, you don’t want everyone to know. So shut up about it when in public and around people you don’t know well. Otherwise you risk robbery.
Lock up: If you’re stashing valuables in your home or car, at least lock the doors and take some basic security precautions to prevent theft. It sounds like common sense, but it bears repeating because people lose large cash hordes simply because they didn’t lock the door.

I still don’t advise keeping things in your home or car. But if you simply feel that you must, at least take some precautions to ensure that your fortune isn’t lost by mistake or that you can’t get to it when you really need it.

Photo: Medium

When Savings Strategies Backfire

November 28, 2012 By Jennifer Derrick 1 Comment

We all want to be able to put more money away for the future, rainy days, or those special goals that are dear to our hearts. Unfortunately, sometimes in our zeal to save money, we devise some strategies that end up backfiring. This usually happens when we feel like we have a discipline problem with money. We think that if it’s in a bank account we’ll spend it, so we resort to playing mind games to cure our discipline problems. It also happens when we try to take advantage of “too good to be true” offers or offers where the deck is stacked in the stores’ favor (such as is the case with rebates). Our intentions are good, but the results are disastrous. Here are some examples of savings strategies gone bad.

Buying gift cards to save up for a trip/big expense and then needing the money

Some people save for vacations or other big purchases by buying gift cards for the restaurants, merchants, gas stations, or other expenses that they’ll incur on vacation. They think that if the money is tied up in cards, they won’t be tempted to spend it on other things. And that’s exactly the problem with this strategy. The money is tied up on the cards. If something happens and you can’t go on the trip or buy the big purchase and you need the money immediately to pay for emergency expenses, you’re out of luck. Most stores won’t allow you to return gift cards for cash. You think you’re dealing with your discipline problem, but you’re really giving up control of your cash.

Buying a coupon that wasn’t intended for you, only to have that coupon rejected at the register

Recently, a Home Depot coupon for $50 off of a $100 purchase hit the Internet. The coupon was intended for a small group of people but instead it went viral, with people printing off hundreds of the things and then selling them on eBay. While Home Depot honored some of these, there were also many reports of stores refusing to honor them. People who bought them off of eBay took a big risk, and it didn’t pay off for more than a few of them. This happens frequently with high dollar coupons, particularly when the retailer doesn’t put control mechanisms on them, such as linking them to an account or unique bar code. You may think you’re saving money, but you’re taking a risk that you will pay for a coupon that you won’t be allowed to use.

Hiding cash or savings bonds in the house and then having a fire, flood, or robbery

This one’s self-explanatory. Some people are so afraid of banks that they hide their cash and savings bonds in their house. That’s all well and good until the house burns down, gets robbed, or floods. Cash can’t be replaced and savings bonds require a painful process (it’s the government, after all) to get replaced. An insured bank is safer.

Adjusting your withholdings at work to get a huge tax refund

Many people intentionally adjust their withholdings at work so they will get a big tax refund every year. The thinking is that this acts as a “forced savings” program. Then, when that big check comes they can pay for a trip or home improvement project. The problem is that this gives control of your money to Uncle Sam throughout the year. If you find yourself in a situation where that extra money would come in handy each check, you have to re-adjust your withholdings and wait for it to take effect. You’re also out the amount you’ve overwithheld until that check comes in April. You’re better off just pocketing $50 – $100 per check in a hard-to-access bank account.

Buying a product with a big rebate and then not sending it in or doing so incorrectly

Rebates can be good, but if you’re relying on it to bring the product down to a price you can afford (i.e., you can’t really afford it unless the rebate comes through), you could be in trouble. Sometimes the problem is that you just forget to send everything in. Other times, the problem is that you didn’t follow all of the retailer’s rules and fine print and they denied you. If a company goes out of business before you get the check, you may never see the money. Even if you manage to overcome all of that, rebate checks can still get lost in the mail. If the rebate will be just “extra” savings for you, then it may be worth it. But if you really need that money, you may want to pass.

Keeping your checking account balance low intentionally and then incurring overdraft fees

Some people try to keep all of their money in savings accounts in order to keep earning interest. The keep their checking balance intentionally low, relying on timely transfers from the savings account to cover their purchases. The problem is that transfers can sometimes take longer than normal. You might forget to make the transfer. Or, your spouse might make a purchase and forget to tell you to move the money to cover it. When this happens, you’re going to get hit with overdraft fees from both your bank and the merchant. Keep enough in your checking account to cover your normal transactions. The amount you’ll lose in interest is nothing compared to the amount you’ll pay in fees.

A bank is still your best bet for saving money. If you think you have a discipline problem, put your savings in an online bank (or a bank that’s far from your house and work) that doesn’t have a debit card or check writing privileges attached to it. That way, you’ll have to transfer money out of the account to spend it, a process which can take a few days. While you may have to wait a couple of days to get that money, in an emergency that’s far better than not being able to get to it all.

If you intend to save with a rebate or coupons (particularly high dollar Internet coupons), make certain that you can comply with all of the rules, that you remember to use/send it in before it expires, and that the retailer hasn’t closed the deal down due to fraud. You may just be better off choosing a different product that doesn’t have the rebate, or searching for other ways to bring your cost down rather than relying on questionable coupons.

(Photo courtesy of Freidwall)

Where Do You Stash Your Money?

November 2, 2008 By M. Beddingfield 6 Comments

I once read that 1 in 10 people don’t use banks for saving money. That’s hard to believe. Hiding your money is unsafe and unwise. But people do it all the time. I’ve done it. You’ve probably done it at one time or another. When my son was young, he used to hide his allowance under the couch cushions.

I knew a man that painted the inside of a Mason jar white and then used it to stash his money. He kept it right out in the open, on a shelf in his workshop. No one ever bothered it because they thought it was a jar of white paint.

In my locale, we call stash money by the name of Mason Jar Money. It’s a common practice here to hide your money for a rainy day. Some folks just don’t trust the banks and some folks are stuck in a time warp.

I had a great Uncle and Aunt who were firm believers in stashing their money. They lived like paupers, wearing second-hand clothes and buying food in cans without labels from the bargain bins. Their very modest home was filled with stuff. In one corner, stood a large stack of ancient National Geographic magazines which exuded a nasty, moldy paper smell. When they passed on at a ripe old age, their sons found thousands of dollars in cash and dividend checks. When they decided to go through the old magazines, they found thousands more.

Then there was the lady up north somewhere, I heard she hid $10,000 underneath her cat’s litter box. I hope she at least sealed it up in a plastic bag first.

Did you hear about the old bachelor who hid his money in the vacuum cleaner bag? His sister hired a maid to clean his house while he was away. She thought it would be a nice surprise. You guessed it. The maid threw away the money filled vacuum cleaner bag.

Of course you’ve heard of hiding money under your mattress or burying it in the back yard. The Walton family kept theirs in a coffee can on the shelf in the kitchen. My Granny was a little more creative. She rolled her bills up and stuck them in the barrels of a double barrel shot gun. Do you think there was a subliminal message there?

Why do people stash their money? Why don’t they use banks? Everyone has their own reasons. Some people, like Ebenezer Scrooge, enjoy surrounding themselves with money, just touching it and counting it over and over. Some people, namely the older generations, don’t trust banks. They think that somehow their money will just disappear and they will never see it again. Some people can’t be bothered and some people don’t want anyone else to know how much money they have. Sometimes folks only need to stash money for a short amount of time; maybe just until they can get to the bank or pay a large bill that requires cash.

Whatever the reason, you obviously have to be very careful where you stash your money. After all, someone else might find it or a burglar might steal it. I’ve heard of hiding money underneath the floor boards, behind a loose brick, taped under a drawer and in the freezer. I used to stash $100 dollar bills behind my son’s baby pictures in the frames. How about in the family Bible or that old copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare?

They even sell stuff that is designed for the money stasher. Ever heard of a money belt? How about those cans that are made to look like a real can of soup but it’s really a secret compartment? I’ve also seen hollowed out books and desks with hidden drawers.

Maybe the reason so many people stash their cash is because they don’t understand compounded interest or inflation and how it relates to their money. They know they have the cash. They know they can get to it at any time. They can spend it any way they wish or save it till the cows come home. It’s their money. Sometimes just knowing you have a bit stashed away can be a comfort.