Illinois man’s wife wants to keep $75K in a home safe — but Ramsey Show says her scarcity mindset only creates more risk
While some people like to keep cash on hand for emergencies, how much is too much?
Bill from Illinois called into The Ramsey Show out of concern for his wife, 64, who wants to keep $75,000 in cash at home in a safe, which would make her feel “comfortable.” (1)
“Of course, being her husband, I want to make her comfortable,” the 62-year-old co-hosts George Kamel and Jade Warshaw.
His wife’s hesitation with banks goes back a few years. Her father was placed in a nursing home in 2021 and passed away in 2024. With no savings or estate plan in place, the state audited his assets, forcing her to painstakingly track every penny he had spent over the previous three years.
“So she’s just sick of dealing with banks,” said co-host Jade Warshaw. But what Bill described, Warshaw added, is really the result of poor estate planning — plus a dose of government bureaucracy.
There’s more risk in keeping that money at home than in a bank account, said co-host George Kamel. The cash could easily be lost to theft or a natural disaster like a fire or flood.
She’ll also lose out on compound interest with “inflation eating away on the buying power versus having it grow in a high-yield savings account,” Kamel said.
But Bill’s wife isn’t alone in wanting to stash cash. A study by Piere, a financial management app, found that the average American keeps $544 in cash and valuables, such as bullion and precious gems, hidden around the house — in freezers, secret compartments and even under floorboards. (2)
While 10% of Americans keep cash in a safe, 6% keep it under a mattress or pillow and 5% stash it in the fridge or freezer.
The reason? The study pointed to a lack of trust in the economy as a major factor driving some Americans to mattress-stuffing to “protect their wealth outside of the traditional banking system.”
A 2023 FDIC study found that 4.2% of U.S. households — about 5.6 million — were unbanked, meaning no one in that household had a checking or savings account. Of those, 15.7% said they “don’t trust banks,” the second-most cited reason for avoiding them.
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