Banking - 3 Years After Katrina

Hurricane Katrina taught us some lessons 3 years ago. Clearly health and safety are the most important things to spend your time and energy on, but you can also avoid financial headaches once your emergency plan is in place. By getting your ducks in a row, you'll be less affected by disaster.

One way to prepare is by having several bank accounts - both online and brick-and-mortar. Link the accounts via ACH so that you can zap money between them. The more electronic you are, the more flexible you'll be. However, going completely electronic is risky too. HSBC customers recently suffered through technical glitches, but those with local brick-and-mortar accounts made it through with less grief.

Finally, we're in a period of increased bank failure activity. There's yet another way that your money could become temporarily inaccessible.

You should imagine what would happen if your bank was destroyed or your money was inaccessible. How would it affect you? If you're using strategies to avoid problems, tell us about them in the comments below.

Further reading:

• What if My Bank is Destroyed?
• What if My Bank Fails?