Money Without the Internet
Cash, records and your crypto wallet
0 of 9 bought
£0 of £1,019 spent
Buy now: under 72 hours
£1,019Cash in mixed notes
Not a cost
£1,500: 40 × £20, 50 × £10, 30 × £5 and £50 in coins. Review against 2–4 weeks of real essential spending
Anchored, insurer-appropriate safe
£550est.
For cash and valuables; a portable fire chest isn't burglary-rated
Fire and water-resistant document chest
£120est.
Wealth register, statements, identity documents
Encrypted offline records drives
£34
SanDisk 64 GB USB-C; encrypt the copies yourself; never store recovery phrases on them
Hardware security keys
£120
YubiKey 5 NFC: one on your keyring, one in the safe
Spare or replacement hardware wallet
£55
Battery-free model bought direct from the maker: Ledger Nano S Plus or Trezor Safe 3
Steel seed-phrase backup plates
£140est.
Cryptosteel or Billfodl class, in two locations
Branch-based bank or building society account
Free
Deposits within £120,000 FSCS limit per banking licence; a second card with a known PIN
Buy next: over 72 hours
£0Gold Sovereigns or half-sovereigns
~£800 each
Legal tender, so exempt from Capital Gains Tax. Too valuable for small trades; no allocation recommended
To do
Check every
Quarterly: print statements and update the register. Yearly: test your wallet recovery.
Where it lives
Cash and keys in the safe; the register in the document chest with a copy held by someone you trust; steel backups in two separate places.
Know-how
The key fact
- An outage cuts off access to your money, not ownership. Banks, platforms and blockchains keep their records.
Your hardware wallet
- The coins are on the blockchain. The 24-word recovery phrase is the key.
- Back it up on steel in two places. Never type it into a phone, computer or website, and ignore any message claiming to be your wallet maker asking for it.
Avoid
- Recovery phrases in Dropbox, email or photos.
- Telling anyone what you hold.
- Relying on card machines working offline.
Not advice
- This covers access, not investment. Ask an FCA-regulated adviser about how much crypto or gold suits you.
Infographic · tap to enlarge