you will lose these things in the next great depression

[Jonas]

I was always interested in history, and was fortunate to be able to have some long conversations with my maternal grandfather before he died in the early 1960's about what it was like to raise 3 children in the "Great Depression". The one thing that "Pop" kept hammering on is that "cash is king". Note that he said "cash", not credit or a large bank balance. In fact, he lost a large amount of money when the bank he did business with failed. From then on he kept accounts in several different banks, and when he died, it was found that he had a substantial quantity of cash in a large safe in the basement of the house.