Withdrawals from portfolio - are you tapping equities?

[Animorph]

For those of you who are withdrawing from your portfolio for living expenses:

We have discussed how many years the fixed-income portion of our portfolios would last without tapping into the equity side during a down market. That would imply that the equity side of the portfolio would not have been touched for a year or so by now.

Have you added to equities, left them alone, or reduced them?

Although I'm nominally 100% equities, I did move to a hefty cash allocation in 2007 before I retired. I've been living off that exclusively, and have added a substantial portion back into equities during the downturn.

[audreyh1]

Other:

I have sufficient cash in accounts outside of my portfolio such that I do should not need to withdraw from my portfolio until late 2010 (knock on wood!).

In the meantime I have rebalanced the portfolio to maintain a constant AA (which meant I bought more equities last year and in Jan).

Audrey

[W2R]

I am not retired yet (so I didn't vote), but I will only be withdrawing from my dividends and not selling either stocks or bonds. My dividends will go to Vanguard Prime Money Market, and I will withdraw from there.

I do not plan to ever sell my equities except if the market should soar, when I might have to do so to rebalance. I would never sell them in a down market like this. I will rebalance each January and maybe occasionally at other times if I get too far off my 45:55 asset allocation.

[Moemg]

I voted other . I 'll admit it I panicked when things kept on going south and I did sell some equities.I know it was the wrong thing to do for my portfolio but did wonders for my peace of mind . When the market started turning upward I threw a little more into the stock market . Now I'm just sitting tight . I was going to change my allocation to 60% /40 % from 70%/30% but since I have a decent pension which is considered a bond portion I am staying put .

[socca]

I'm living off investment income, no tapping of assets of any kind. If I ever have to tap equities it means I'm in deep doo doo because almost everything is gone.

I'm not too worried about this scenario because I can always call Washington and ask for my share of the TARP (Troubled Ass**** Relief Program).

[ejman]

I assume "other" covers living of the dividends and CG thrown off by portfolio so that's my vote.

[unclemick]

Other. 40% of income is SS plus non cola pension - unless I hit the super CB(cheap bastard button) mode.

60% Sweep div's on taxable div stocks to MM during the year. Full auto deduct Target in Feb after auto Dec rebalance to MM.

The manual is to replenish my local bank account when necessary via my MM Checking.

heh heh heh - auto rebalancing my Target Retirement saves a lot of deep thinking and saves my hormones for football season. Which interestingly is when I seem to do most individual stock selling/buying. .

[Rambler]

I'm not retired so I did not vote, but I won't be touching equities for living expenses. We will be living off muni bond interest and dividends. The bond interest will cover basic living expenses (munis rarely fail, especially long ones that are general obligation bonds). The divvies and any cap gain distributions from mutual funds will cover the extras (hobby money, vacations, AA adjustments either way), and the cash stash will cover a few years plus emergencies, provided that the banks and government do not fail simulateously. In that case, I have a stash of food and seeds, and two acres on which I can grow some fresh food.

R

[charlie]

I inherited EE bonds when my mother passed in August. Lyn and I are
living on SS plus some of the bonds that I cashed plus income from my
laundromat. We are not drawing any RMD this year and won't until the
end of 2010 so the IRA will hopefully recover somewhat. Not drawing
anything from the taxable port either, just reinvesting the divs and
hoping for the best.

Cheers,

charlie

[Nords]

16 months into our 24-month cash stash, which may stretch a little further.

We rebalanced in Feb 08 and took a huge cap gains tax-loss swap in Nov 08 but maintained about the same overall percentage of equities.

[Sparky]

I am retired but didn't vote because my port is down about 60-70%, so I'm just hanging on, selling some stuff, some bonds, some equities. My dividends are kaput.

[CuppaJoe]

Quote:

I'm withdrawing from fixed income and changing my asset allocation to increase equities.

There is something ironically funny about "I'm withdrawing from fixed income" when the part I'm withdrawing from first is paying out so little in income. At this point, I'm not bothering to find a place to up the percentage rate of the first withdrawal group. But the good/bad news is that it could take a couple of years before that passbook rate group vanishes and I start withdrawing from the 5-6% fixed income assets.

I am increasing my equities in 1% increments as the spirit moves me but have an awful feeling there is no rush.

[yakers]

Will began withdrawals from my target retirement fund & DW's Wellesley IRA in 2010. These + pensions to cover living expenses.

[Telly]

In year #7 here, have yet to sell any bond fund or equity, other than an exchanges for rebalancing purposes. My cash buffer is lasting a lot longer than I ever would have imagined 6 or 7 years ago. One factor is that I neglected to take into account growth of the cash/cd/sb. Even though it's shrinking overall, it's still growing.

[bigla]

I have 3-5 years stashed in cash from profits I took out of equities 2 years ago. We are conservatively withdrawing from that to augment our pensions and DW's SS.
Larry