How Big Is Your Emergency Reserve?

[ua_guy]

We're doing much better these days. We have at least six months, growing more towards 1 year of expenses in liquid assets. Plus we have our retirement accounts that could float us for years after that. And we have lines of credit, if we decide to include any debt into the remediation plan. Not bad, but I would like to bolster our reserves overall. We've come a long way.

For natural disasters, we live half off the grid anyway. We keep some cash in various places but that's more focused on short term interruptions in utilities, services, and financial networks. If the big one hits, I think we're better prepared than most. In those situations, it's better to have "things" than money, and I think we're pretty adequately equipped to survive on our own for a while.

[KTP]

You can spend a ton of money on things like Mountain House dehydrated meals, but all you really need to survive is rice, beans, vitamin C, and perhaps some spices. You could live off of this combo for a year or more if you had to do it. $200 for a year's food.

Advantage: You can use the rice, vitamins and beans in your everyday cooking, replacing your hoard as they get depleted.

We are not preppers in any normal sense, but I do keep 100 pounds of rice, 50 pounds of dried black and red beans, vitamin C, and we of course have a lot of spices. I also have a few dozen cans of beef and tuna from Costco because they are really tasty.

[BrianWeatherdonCFP]

Great question, insights, and discussion. Just quickly to mention, you may or may not have whole life insurance. In the event you do, the cash value in that life insurance is generally vested and can never fall in value (unless you withdraw it) so imagine it's making some percentage in growth, but can never fall. That's something you would also add to your emergency reserves. <<>> Eventually too you may feel that a line of credit can function as your emergency reserve; when you've cleared all or most other debt, LoC may seem suitable as a reserve against rainy days. You can choose if that seems suitable for you.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I'm watching the news of the chemical spill to the public water source for Charleston, West Virginia.

Quotes from a Reuters article this morning:

"It's just ridiculous," said Jaime Cook of Charleston, who was buying one of the last jugs of water at a Walmart store. "There's nowhere to buy water and everywhere seems to be sold out. This isn't going to last two days."

Tina May, a Charleston resident, even considered heading out of town for the weekend. "I'm not sure how long I can last without a shower. This is unbearable," she said.

The article included a photo of people lined up in their cars to receive bottles water from the local water service. So-- burning gasoline and burning time to receive water.

Water is the fundamental item we keep on hand, but two summers ago we kept our car tank full, ready to leave town should there be a black out in the persistent 100+F weather. We thought that any black out could be over a large region and we would want to be able to get out of the area. Were we younger and healthier, we would have chosen to ride it out. But health changes focus.

The other thing about our water storage is that it is all in our basement. When we had a basement flood last summer, we were lucky that our water storage was not affected. But in the natural disasters we are told to be prepared for, the water, like all our worldly goods, could become inaccessible or ruined.

My latest long-shot fear is that there would be an explosive, flaming railroad oil-tank derailment. The once nearly defunct railroad tracks less than a quarter block from us have been revived and now day and night, those tank cars roll by. How many derailments of these trains have been in the news in the last year? Four, I think? That would be an evacuation emergency. Forget all else, just go! (Savings could come into play should we need to be away from home for very long.)

[Nika]

Saving foods seems unnecessary and wasteful to me. I have to replace it every few years (and since I eat fresh food, that would be a waste for me).

Having gone through Sandy where a lot of people lost power (luckily my area did not, and we are in zone 5 and will not flood, but could still lose power) I know what I would to if my area was to lose power. I would not sit in my apartment with a todder using flashlights, dry food, no heat, no running water and TOILET YOU CAN'T FLUSH. My plan would be to fill up the gas tank before the storm and if we lost power/heat/essential services, we would drive 1-3 hours away to a place where those things are available. We would stay in a hotel, with heat, and eat out hot freshly prepared meals 3 times a day if need be.

And when there was gas shortage, there were lines, regulated by police in very few places, it was mostly unnecessary. But there was no one running around with gold coins to gas stations or grocery stores. US currency was still the only medium. I'm not sure for what total collapse/zombie apocalypse scenario you are preparing for.

Also, access was restored very fast, and emergency supplies like water and food were provided free in hard hit neighborhoods.

People who were stuck at the superdome in New Orleans were there because they had no money to leave, not because they did not have a stockpile of dry grains at their destroyed homes.

[disneysteve]

Saving foods seems unnecessary and wasteful to me. I have to replace it every few years (and since I eat fresh food, that would be a waste for me).

Having gone through Sandy where a lot of people lost power (luckily my area did not, and we are in zone 5 and will not flood, but could still lose power) I know what I would to if my area was to lose power. I would not sit in my apartment with a todder using flashlights, dry food, no heat, no running water and TOILET YOU CAN'T FLUSH. My plan would be to fill up the gas tank before the storm and if we lost power/heat/essential services, we would drive 1-3 hours away to a place where those things are available. We would stay in a hotel, with heat, and eat out hot freshly prepared meals 3 times a day if need be.

People who were stuck at the superdome in New Orleans were there because they had no money to leave, not because they did not have a stockpile of dry grains at their destroyed homes.

I'm with Nika. If something happens, we will load up the car and get out of town. That's what an emergency fund is for. We were not in the evacuation zone for Sandy but we were in an area where many people lost power. We thankfully did not though some parts of our town did for 4-6 days. So we rode out the storm at home but our gas tanks were full and ready to go if needed.

We did pack up and leave home once during a blizzard a few years back. Power went out and it was dark and cold. We had no way to know how long it would be until power was restored so we made the decision to leave. While I dug the car out of the snow, DW and DD packed our bags and we headed to a hotel that had power.