Experts alert: safe yourself with cash before it's besides late

Faced with increasing economical uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, more and more financial economists and analysts recommends to citizens that in the close future They've been covered in cash.. Although the trend of digitalisation and non-cash payments seems unstoppable, experts point out that cash continues to play a key role – especially in crisis situations, interruptions in access to banking systems or infrastructure failures.

Why do experts advise to have cash?

The advice to safe cash is not due to nostalgia behind the past, but to specific hazard analysiswhich may happen in the financial and social system. Analysts indicate among others:

• Potential breaks in access to online accounts and banking due to cyber attacks, strategy failure or blackout.
• International tensions, which can lead to logistical disruption and supply chains, which in turn affects the availability of goods and services.
• Increasing inflation risk and the volatility of exchange rates that may affect the availability of funds in accounts and their real value.
• Unforeseeable policy and regulatory decisions, e.g. temporary freezing of funds, payment limits or fresh restrictions on non-cash payments.

As he notes Prof. Andrzej Wojciechowski, a financial marketplace economist for more than 20 years:

"The cashless strategy works large in peace and stability, but its sensitivity to interference can manifest rapidly. Cash is simply a form of basic safety for the citizen.”

How much cash is worth?

Experts are not talking about the request to rise immense sums, but alternatively about rationally securing basic needs for respective days or weeks. The recommended amount depends on the lifestyle and size of the household, but in practice it is worth having:

• minimum appropriations 7-14 days of regular expenditure (food, transport, medicines),
• denominations smaller and medium (e.g. 10, 20, 50 zł) which are easier to usage in the absence of the rest,
• cash stored in a safe but accessible place – not at the bank, like at home.

Examples of fresh years: erstwhile cash saved the situation

Many Poles may have found the importance of cash during:

• failure of banking systems in 2022when terminals and ATMs in many cities have not worked for respective hours,
• natural disasters, specified as floods or storms erstwhile local blackouts occurred,
• Ukraine crisiswhen many refugees, without access to accounts, utilized only cash.

Each of these cases shows that cash is not only a symbol of the past, but a real backup.

Can you limit access to cash?

In the public debate, there is no shortage of votes that governments – for various reasons, including fiscal ones – may restrict the free circulation of cash in the future. This includes:

• cash payment limits in B2B and B2C transactions,
• liquidation of advanced denomination banknotesWhat has already happened in India, for example,
• fiscal or technological incentives to control to digital.

Although there are presently no plans to completely liquidate cash in Poland, it is worth following the current legislative changes – both at national and EU level.

Can cash lose value?

Of course, like any form of value preservation, cash is not risk-free. Inflation can reduce its purchasing power, and long-term keeping large sums at home may hazard theft or destruction. Therefore, economists advise balance savings between different forms – bank accounts, deposits, cash and even material assets.

However, in the short and average termcash provides flexibility and independenceEspecially erstwhile another methods fail.

Cash and citizenship

It's not meaningless either. an aspect of individual freedom. Cash allows anonymous transactions without digital tracking. At a time erstwhile many online services collect user data, any citizens consider cash to be the last form Economic autonomy.

As he emphasizes Dr Monika Zielińska, Information Society Specialist:

‘The cash is more than a means of payment. It is besides a symbol of the right to privacy and independency in the digital economy."

Although the planet is moving towards expanding digitalisation and mobile payments are becoming the norm, cash should not be ignored. Not as an alternate to electronic banking, but as a complement – a circumstantial contingency plan.

In the light of current economical analyses and possible systemic risks, insurance in cash is simply a reasonable step, especially for those who want to be prepared for unexpected events – from interruptions in banking systems to crisis situations.