Is Cash ‘Trash’? Yes, let me explain

Ray Dalio has said that “cash is trash”. That might seem really confusing because Dalio has said that you need some cash for emergency savings. In addition, many people say “cash is king”. How can cash be trash if it’s also king? And if cash is trash, why have an emergency savings like Dalio says?

The truth is that cash being trash is not incompatible with cash being king. Cash can be trash in certain respects, while being king in other respects. One can also have an emergency savings while also thinking that there’s a sense in which cash is absolutely trash.