Saving-in-kind

How do the poor save? I've written before about how can the poor save. They want to, they can, they do. But for this edition of "how" do they save, let's talk about saving-in-kind.

1968, 1 oz. of Hershey's chocolate costs $0.05

2008, 1 oz. of Hershey's chocolate costs $0.59

40 years, over 5 times the price, simple inflation.

Germany once had inflation so bad that bar patrons would order two beers at a time so that the second beer would not cost twice as much as the first, even though it would be a little warmer.

If you are super poor in a country that has super inflation (I think that's a technical term), then how in the world can you save anything for a bad day? This is hypothetical, of course, not happening here and now, but you could kind of imagine that happening right? Oh, by the way, Zimbabwe's inflation is somewhere in the range of 231,000,000% right now.

What would you do if inflation were to happen in America (again, hypothetical)? Put money in gold or silver? How about cows? Cows actually make a good form of savings, especially if you like milk. Inflation can come and go, but a cow is still worth a cow. Maybe you can't afford a cow … that's a problem. Or maybe you have a cow and you need $5 to go to the dentist; do you just sell a whole $60 cow?

Q: Can you sell 1/12 of a cow?

A: Only if you're ready to eat the other 11/12 of it.

Me, I prefer goats. Danielle prefers goats, too, but mostly as friends. Goat milk or cheese is tastier to me, and you can diversify your investment with 4 goats instead of 1 cow. Then it's easier to cash in just one goat. Pigs will do in a pinch, but they're not kosher.

If you really like easily accessible assets, go rabbits. Quick breeders, easy to cash, tasty to eat, ... but I hear they can catch and spread disease quickly, too. But hey, when one cow gets a disease and one cow is what you got, what are you going to do?