How many months of cash in your portfolio do you keep?

Sunset said:
I did count GIC's or CD's as the same a cash, as long as I could cash them out within a time frame that I would not have already run out of cash (about 1-2 years).
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In a full GIC ladder, I would usually have GICs maturing in 1,2,3,4 and 5 years. Once again, the definition of "cash" defines the answer. The accounting definition of "cash and cash equivalents" uses a cutoff of 3 months, or 90 days, unrestricted.

https://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/item-in-cash-and-cash-equivalents
 
About 12mo in cash (Synchrony Savings at 1.2%), and a (short) 3/6/9/12-mo CD ladder with another 12m worth of "cash"
 
Counting checking, savings and CDs, we also have about 8 years worth in cash. About 30% of our investable assets.
 
About to retire and currently have 24 months of cash. About 12 months in stable value fund (2% last quarter) and 12 months in Amex savings 1.15%
 
Meadbh said:
In a full GIC ladder, I would usually have GICs maturing in 1,2,3,4 and 5 years.
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Factoring in current CPP, OAS (which for DW will increase in November), dividend & interest income, which will exceed our current rate of expenditure, we have enough in GICs to last to the end of time. :LOL:
 
Currently have about 4.4 years of cash between checking and savings accounts, but am actively seeking certain types of investments to reduce the cash hoard to more like 6-12 months' worth.
 
12 to 18 months living expenses, or 4 - 7% of investable assets. I rebalance to 7% early each year.
 
So far the combination of capital gains distributions at the end of the year and quarterly dividends has been enough to for me to schedule a regular monthly deposit to my checking account that just happens to be my self-decided "paycheck" each month. That's been working fine for over three years now and effectively means I'm keeping as much as six months and as little as one month in cash.

But I'm currently living on less than half of what I calculated I could before I decided to retire. I suppose at some point in the future if my monthly expenses double to meet my projections I would need to start selling shares of something.
 
Nemo2 said:
Factoring in current CPP, OAS (which for DW will increase in November), dividend & interest income, which will exceed our current rate of expenditure, we have enough in GICs to last to the end of time. :LOL:
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Good for you!
I just turned 60 but have done the math and it makes sense for me to wait till 65 before starting CPP. I expect to have OAS fully clawed back, so I'm not counting on anything from that source.
 
Oh, I'm watching this thread with interest. Inherited a brokerage acct from Dad which was largely in high-ER mutual funds which I sold, so I'm sitting on a fairly large amount of cash right now.
 
LOL! said:
I pay everything with a credit card. If I need to pay a credit card bill, then I sell something in the portfolio and have the proceeds show up in my checking account and use online billpay to pay the credit card.


.
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Did you employ this method in 2007-2009 during the downturn? Selling equities back then was a bit costly. Or is this post crash. I wasnt in here back then so I dont know how your portfolio was handled back then.
 
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Total investable assets - several years worth, probably more than five but a good chunk of this is in high yielding CDs and iBonds. I have enough invested in equities and bonds to meet long term needs (knock on wood) so I don't feel the need to reduce my cash holdings.

I am retired.
 
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Meadbh said:
I just turned 60 but have done the math and it makes sense for me to wait till 65 before starting CPP.
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I took it at 60......did a rough calculation, the exact details of which I can't quite recall, but it appeared that the break even point before those who started at 65 pulled ahead was 75 or 85.........since I've already outlasted all the (known) males on my paternal side I thought I'd emulate the song and "Take the money and run".

So far, so good.
 
The max I keep in cash in my portfolio is 12 months. Right now I am at 8 months. I am only including pure cash. I have many more months worth in near cash (CDs, I-bonds, and short term bonds).
 
Blue Collar Guy said:
Did you employ this method in 2007-2009 during the downturn? Selling equities back then was a bit costly. Or is this post crash. I wasnt in here back then so I dont now how your portfolio was handled back then.
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I used the same method but was selling bonds -- both to transfer money to checking account and to re-balance to my target equity percent. When the market tanks, unless you have very high or 100% equity you would normally not be selling equity.

Caveat - during '08 and '09 I was selling massive amounts of equity and buying more massive amounts of equity to harvest losses for tax purposes. In terms of allocation management I generally treat that as a non-sale but rather a net purchase.
 
I plan to go into retirement with 5 years of cash that meets my target SWR for those years, so that I am not required to sell equities.
 
If we are counting CD's the same as cash in this thread (checking, etc) then I have a lifetime of cash available at my current annual spend rates. As I've explained in other threads, my cash/CD's are in bucket #1 which should last me until my final days or at least 20 yrs. Bucket #2 is for investments, speculation and/or whatever.
 
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Currently about 11 months, but I am slowly spending that down.

My plan is to keep cash on hand between 2-8 months, refilling it about twice per year from my investments.

Newly FIREd about 2 years.
 
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