I'm not sold on this $250k guarantee for a couple of reasons.

One, we have not seen a single government make good on the guarantee.

Two, we have not seen a single bank take up the guarantee offer.

These guarantees were put in place after the financial crisis, so we haven't seen them in action.

Three, new agreements were put in place to supersede these guarantees. To wit, they are the G-SIB and D-SIB rules where any failing bank would be "Cyprus'd", ie deposits in failing bank converted into bank shares redeemable at a later date.

Four, the numbers just don't add up. The $ balance in the deposit guarantee schemes just can't cover the value of deposits.

For this reason, I continue to convert my money into assets. I keep a very minimal amount of cash in the bank that can last me a year of expenses, and a big portion of it is in cash I keep in my mattress.

Trust the government all you want, but for me, the guarantees are just psychological tools to prevent people from withdrawing their money from the banks. If push comes to shove, in my opinion, the scheme will fail and nobody will get their $ up to $250,000.