<prompt> Human: A small home safe was passed down to me a while ago about the same time I graduated college and got serious about finances. Several years pass and I pay down debts, contribute to IRA401k accounts, cut spending, built a emergency fund and started to save a substantial portion of income. Naturally, important documents and a modest amount of cash made it into the safe along with some gold and silver I picked up along the way. Even with documents alone, a safe in a apartment not bolted to the ground did not sit well for me. Safe deposit boxes were the alternative. Dare I say, I quickly became infatuated. It was on. The research I did found that safe deposit boxes were A cheap B not FDIC insured C subject to rare, but sophisticated theft D there is not a lot of detailed info about safe deposit boxes, although there really is not much to begin with and E they are going the way of the dodo. The romance of having valuables in a bank vault was all but gone There were also myths like the governmentblack helicopters can seize your safe deposit box But the IRS can freeze access to your safe deposit box if you owe back taxes At only 35year for a 3x5 inch box, demand must be pretty low. If all the boxes were taken they could easily increase the fee, right? Calling ahead to check availability of the location that best suited me caught me a bit off-guard when the branch rep told me they only had one box available for the size I wanted. Maybe the articles about deposit boxes becoming a lot less popular were wrong. I must act. Arriving at the branch was very welcoming. I have always shied away from banks and prefer Credit Unions My local CU is awesome and I ate a few fresh baked cookies while I waited to talk to someone. The rep was friendly and seemed to be very familiar with getting me setup. She said I was lucky as the single small box only became available within the past month. I asked about other sizes and there were only a few medium sized boxes available and none of the larger ones Being escorted into the vault was pretty cool. The vault door was quite thick 15 inches or so and walls were solid concrete. It was divided into two sections, one being with the safe deposit boxes and I assume the latter, behind another locked door, was where any cash was kept. There was a small room about the size of an airplane bathroom where I could put what I wanted into the box. My contents were brought in a small cardboard box. I was present with the deposit box from when she used the dual key lock to open the slot until it was returned. There was no way I could see where someone could eavesdrop on the contents. The box had a hinge where you could put a small lock to show if someone has actually opened the slot door and tampered with the box. So, here are the keys and here is the box I was issued. What I had with me barely fit and in the next few years I might get a larger one. A few months later and there is definitely some peace of mind, and I have an old-school cool feeling about it. I did look at increasing my renters insurance but the cost of offsite storage seemed very much worth while, even if it is to save the PITA of replacing my SS card, birth certificate, car title, etc...You should know your state laws about abandoned safe deposit boxes. Most are very liberal in that ten years of non-payment need to lapse before it is drilled and the contents given to the state in which they will try and find the owner before auctioning it off. Protip: keep a sheet with you and your next of kins contact info in the box in case you get foolish and forget about it. I have a savings account through this CU and they said as long as there is enough to cover the yearly cost it will never be flagged as abandoned. You could add additional people to be able to access the box however they needed to be present to create a signature to compare to future visits. They would still need a physical key to get in. I thought it would be cool if you could add someone without them knowing. Something like a Dead Mans Switch in case you pass and someone needs to get the contents. Or you are Jason Bourne. Hope this gives some more detail of the process and perspective of who this applies for. If you have a decent safe bolted to a concrete floor you should be good. You will have to balance the security of a 2000 home safe to smash-and-grab robbers to a bona fide bank vault subject to more professional thieves.Good luck.  <response>: My parents still have a safety deposit box for safekeeping birth certificates, passports, savings bonds, family jewelry. I never knew they had gone out of style! Im glad its working out for you : 