This is what people with bad credit do. (20 to 25% of the US population?) Your employer cannot require you to use direct deposit so you cash your check with at your employers bank where the check is drawn. You pay all your bills with money orders from the gas station. (and pay a few percent for every one) Stacking cash gets difficult because any cash you hold onto is instantly devalued due to inflation (this also happens if you keep your money in a non-interest-bearing checking account.) You have to invest that cash in something that will hold it’s value or gain value. Most people living like this are using their excess cash to save up to buy a used vehicle or they’re just trying to establish a couple thousand dollars on hand to cover emergency expenses. If you have those things covered you can purchase small amounts of silver and gold online and have it delivered. If you’re lucky you live near a coin shop or jewelry shop where you can purchase it in person with no paper trail. Having a local business you deal with like that makes it a lot easier to sell the metals if you have a good relationship with the folks. That makes the precious metals a fairly liquid asset. If you’re pulling 500 a week take-home and need about 350 of that to cover basic expenses that leaves about 600/month for savings. With the way precious metals look now I would probably spend 500 of that on silver and 100 on gold. (Be aware of federal laws requiring disclosure of large precious metal transactions if, for some reason, you need to be paranoid. If you were working legally and paying taxes this shouldn’t be a problem. The algorithms will think you are spending your excess cash on booze and alcohol like everybody else while you are quietly stacking physical coins.)