Emergency Fund - Invest?

[captainspoke]

Nor if you lose your job and your card company finds out.

Ohh, I didn’t know banks could revoke cards for that. Interesting.

I've never heard of this, either.

In a similar vein, am I lucky they didn't revoke mine when I retired?

[pfdsa]

Nor if you lose your job and your card company finds out.

Ohh, I didn’t know banks could revoke cards for that. Interesting.

I've never heard of this, either.

In a similar vein, am I lucky they didn't revoke mine when I retired?

I never heard of it either, but I guess it could happen.
Most banks won't give you a credit card if you're on a 1 year work visa, working as freelancer, part-time, etc, or if your current visa only has a few months left before expiring. When my zairyu card is almost expiring the banks that I used so far always asked me to go personally to the closest bank and show them the new zairyu card. However, once a local bank insisted that in addition to the zairyu card they also wanted some proof that I'm still working (updated contract, etc). Taking that into consideration, having your credit card revoked if you aren't working doesn't sound impossible.

If you're retired I guess you have either PR, spouse visa, etc, so your case is different. Just thinking out loud tho.
Maybe adamu knows more about this.

[mighty58]

I keep enough cash for a "real" emergency to tide me over. By real emergency I mean huge earthquake and the ATMs and credit card machines stop working. I keep about 80-100man in cash at home at any one time. I figure that should be enough to tide me over, or at least get me to a location where the ATMs are still working.

For less urgent emergencies, which in essence is just an unexpected expense, I will just sell down investments and/or use credit cards.

[adamu]

I keep about 80-100man in cash at home at any one time.

Where did you say you live again?

[beanhead]

I keep about 80-100man in cash at home at any one time. I figure that should be enough to tide me over, or at least get me to a location where the ATMs are still working.

This also carries the risk of losing the cash in a fire, which happen rather too frequently here.

I would be interested in knowing if, after any of the large earthquakes or even floods, anyone here did lose access to ATMs. Were they all out for days, weeks?
I was here in 2011 and there were shortages of bread and petrol, but the bank/convenience store infrastructure was fine where we live.

[RetireJapan]

I keep about 80-100man in cash at home at any one time. I figure that should be enough to tide me over, or at least get me to a location where the ATMs are still working.

This also carries the risk of losing the cash in a fire, which happen rather too frequently here.

I would be interested in knowing if, after any of the large earthquakes or even floods, anyone here did lose access to ATMs. Were they all out for days, weeks?
I was here in 2011 and there were shortages of bread and petrol, but the bank/convenience store infrastructure was fine where we live.

Electricity was off completely for a week or so(?) in Sendai. We left after three days so not competely sure of the timing. Also some people in Chiba lost power for a long time after typhoons a couple of years back.

We have a fireproof safe, although to be fair haven't tested it properly yet

[mighty58]

This also carries the risk of losing the cash in a fire, which happen rather too frequently here.

I would be interested in knowing if, after any of the large earthquakes or even floods, anyone here did lose access to ATMs. Were they all out for days, weeks?
I was here in 2011 and there were shortages of bread and petrol, but the bank/convenience store infrastructure was fine where we live.

Am I unique in thinking of an "emergency" in these terms? I saw on several NHK docs about the aftermath of 3/11 up in Tohoku, how their entire infrastructure including money-access, was put out of commission. Something big happening to the power grid will affect these things, making cash king. True on the fire risk though, but that's one risk of many.

I'm perfectly comfortable relying on credit cards for unexpected expenses, or asset selldowns for something bigger ... but I don't really consider these "emergencies" in the true sense of the word.

[beanhead]

Electricity was off completely for a week or so(?) in Sendai. We left after three days so not competely sure of the timing. Also some people in Chiba lost power for a long time after typhoons a couple of years back.

We have a fireproof safe, although to be fair haven't tested it properly yet

Thanks. We had a bad fire near us once, so this is more of a 'real' threat for me than other situations we have not experienced.
My strategy after 2011 is to keep a full tank of 'gas' in the car at basically all times, again because it was scarce at that time.
And have enough cash on hand to get tickets out of the city/country if necessary.

So, similar thinking to mighty58. Total inability to use electronic payments or ATMs is something we should all consider, I guess...

[Established]

I keep about 80-100man in cash at home at any one time. I figure that should be enough to tide me over, or at least get me to a location where the ATMs are still working.

This also carries the risk of losing the cash in a fire, which happen rather too frequently here.

I would be interested in knowing if, after any of the large earthquakes or even floods, anyone here did lose access to ATMs. Were they all out for days, weeks?
I was here in 2011 and there were shortages of bread and petrol, but the bank/convenience store infrastructure was fine where we live.

Electricity was off completely for a week or so(?) in Sendai. We left after three days so not competely sure of the timing. Also some people in Chiba lost power for a long time after typhoons a couple of years back.

We have a fireproof safe, although to be fair haven't tested it properly yet

We have a fireproof bag that has passports and citizenship certificates, that kind of thing. Right next to our earthquake bag.

However, thank you everyone for reminding me to have cash on hand, so easy to forget these days in Tokyo when I use my phone for all payments.

I will allocate 10万 for now, my wife says it all needs to be in small bills.

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

my wife says it all needs to be in small bills.

Yeah, ours is in small bills and big coins. Portability is one thing, but not everyone's going to have change on hand for cash transactions in the immediate aftermath of a genuine emergency, so we're trying for a balance between the two.