In an emergency of the shelter-in or bug-out variety, or if there were simply a mass power outage, it would be priceless to not have to panic about two vital items: gas and cash.

So I keep my gas tank pretty full (a habit acquired post 9/11) and about $1k on hand (more if all the uncounted change were added up -- an item on the to-do list). In my mind, the $1k would be most critical for buying more fuel -- which probably would quickly experience price inflation.

Wealth has never been so precarious as in this digital age.

In a discussion over the banks melting down last fall, I confided to a friend that I had $1k on hand. She would not appear to be the survivalist type, at all, so I thought she might think me a bit extreme.

Then she replied that she had taken $10k out of the bank, just in case.

In a survival crisis, the greatest wealth is tangibles: water, food, shelter, fuel. But some cash could be handy.