I rarely use cash nowadays. Paying with a credit card is more convenient than paying with cash and managing pocket change. Plus some credit cards provide a benefit for using them such as a reward on each transaction of a percentage of the purchase price.
Because I use my credit cards for all of my purchases, any cash that I put in my wallet for emergencies is likely to stay there untouched for a long time. Of course if I lose my wallet, I will lose the cash. I need to balance the risk of not having enough cash on me to cover a future emergency versus the risk of the potential harm from losing all of the cash if I drop my wallet.
I have decided that the amount of cash that I should carry on me at all times is just enough to make change for any bill. This means that I can break a five-, ten-, twenty-, fifty-, or one hundred-dollar bill upon request. Here is what I carry:
- Five one-dollar bills
- One five-dollar bill
- Two ten-dollar bills
- One twenty-dollar bill
- One fifty-dollar bill
This adds up to an even one hundred dollars. This is a nice big round number which is easy to remember when you need to know how much cash you have on you. One hundred dollars is enough without being too much.
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