Places never to store your cash
December 02, 2011
While savings account interest rates remain low, they still beat storing your life savings in the lining of a jacket.
Or so it must seem for an unidentified 80-year-old man in Moline, Ill., who mistakenly gave away a suit to a Goodwill store that had $13,000 sewn into it, according to news reports. In a sad twist, the man needed the money to pay for his wife's stage-four cancer treatments.
After realizing his mistake, he and others searched the store for the coat, but nobody could find it. The money has yet to show up as of this writing, though the family has offered a $1,000 reward for its return.
While most people have probably lost a dollar or two in their lives, the $13,000 sum makes this loss remarkable. But it isn't the first time that someone who's opted against a savings account has left a lot of money in a strange place.
During the Depression, when bank collapses and unemployment were high, a wealthy businessman in Cleveland stashed $182,000 in a bathroom wall, according to an Associated Press story. A contractor found the money in 2006 and ended up fighting over it in court with the homeowner.
Other have kept their cash from banks because they have something to hide. Having money illegally is a good reason to avoid the teller, as Louisiana congressman William Jefferson allegedly did in 2005 by storing bribery money in his freezer in frozen food containers, according to CNN.
In the suit jacket story on ABCNews.com, a Goodwill employee said that other donors have mistakenly left money in their clothes, wallets or purses. But in previous cases, people who have bought those items have usually brought the cash back.
Although the personal savings rate by Americans rose to 3.5 percent in October, it's still lingering near its lowest level since the Great Recession began, according to Commerce Department figures. Still, there is still a lot of money out there that will end up in places other than savings accounts.
If you're not a drug dealer or crooked public official and you just want to put some cash away for easy access in an emergency, there are all kinds of places in a home to hide it: an empty soup can in the pantry, a tampon box, a hidden wall outlet, and of course, under a mattress.
Be sure to keep only enough cash for emergencies though. The lack of interest and FDIC insurance make it unwise to keep too much cash in your home.
