Increasing cash positions

[Time2]

I went the other direction from 60/40 to 96/4 last two weeks. Good luck to you.

I'm with you Viper, I sold several 100k on Feb 28 and bought back in Mar 25, about 17% cheaper. I just don't seeing being out of the market when we see things starting to improve with the virus.

 

[targatom2019]

I'm with you Viper, I sold several 100k on Feb 28 and bought back in Mar 25, about 17% cheaper. I just don't seeing being out of the market when we see things starting to improve with the virus.

Cheers, I played this game in 2000 and 2008. The only way to beat the market and billion dollar institutional investors is to stay the course and add position when there is blood on the streets.

 

[Perryinva]

My large cash positions were to allow me to Roth convert and delay SS. I wasn’t planning on doing any conversions until 2021, but this opportunity allowed me to use that cash to buy in. Gained 15% in a week in my HSA & tIRA and locked in those gains. Another 2 years withdrawals right there. The plan is for my cash position will be a years worth in 6 years when collecting SS and conversions are done.

 

[SeattleRocks]

I'm 70% CDs (laddered - purchased 5 year CDs back when you can get 3.5%-3.7%, none of my CDs are below 3% which is nice!) and 30% Fed MM.

A couple of my CDs are maturing this month and next and I already notified the banks I am not interested in renewing and to send me a check. Going to roll them over into my Vanguard Fed MM account and keep my powder dry.

I am waiting to see if we are going to retest the lows and if we get below 20,000 again, I am going to start dollar cost averaging my 30% into index ETFs and as the CDs mature, if interest rates are still basically terrible, I will just move more of my cash portfolio into the market.

 

[RobLJ]

Raising Cash

I sold about 1/2 of this week's gains to bring the stock allocation back down to 43%, after putting cash into stock funds a few weeks ago when we were 25% down in S&P.
Just having fun with volatility, which I suspect will continue for a while; if not, that's even better. Rinse and repeat.

40% stocks is my trigger to put most of this shortterm cash-stash back in (I'm at 30% cash, so I have dry powder if a downslide continues, or to get me to full SS age without selling bonds.) I'm playing shortterm with about 1 years withdrawal, although if a decline hits 30% and lower, I'll put more of the cashstash to work in stock funds. I'm skeptical of a continued quick V-shape recovery over the next 9 months, but if that occurs, I'm fine with it. I do think we'll see more 10-15% swings back and forth. Picking up nickels in front of the steam-roller, maybe.

 

[EllenP]

So, almost a month since the last post in this thread and things have only gotten worse; where is everyone now?

My money's been all in cash for a couple of years now; I never did have a high tolerance for risk, and when I got a new boss I don't like two years ago I started to seriously think about retiring sooner than I might have. The work situation has calmed down and I now have no immediate plans to retire, but I'm very much in agreement with those on this thread who say that their strategy is simply, "Do I have enough?" I guess I'm glad I was in the market for a few good years, but I saved aggressively and lived frugally, so though I don't have nearly as much as a lot of you do, I feel pretty secure.

Last year when I turned 59 1/2 I rolled over as much as I could from of my 401(k), since the safest option I have there is a money market earning virtually nothing (though I'm still contributing enough to get the full company match, of course, so that's an immediate 103% return), and put it into laddered CDs whose rates now look pretty good -- 2.55% - 2.37%. My IRA (Roth, since I make too much for a traditional) is in GBU variable rate annuities (like CDs, but with an insurance company rather than a bank) at 3.25% and 3.00%. I'm fully vested in two of those three accounts, so I guess that counts as cash.

I learned in 2008 that I can't sleep at night with very much in the stock market.

 

[RobLJ]

Still at 29% cash and waiting/watching.

The last month, despite my small sell last month, brought me back up to 46% stocks so another 2-3% gain in the S&P and I might shave off another 2-3% stocks to get me down to the 43% level.
As the market goes up, continue.

The more pertinent question is when to pull the trigger to buy, which I plan at 5-7% drops. But the performance of the S&P/especially Nasdaq has been inspiring/amazing.
I can't figure out how much even 3 year profits I'm buying at current prices, but with 40% in the game, I still benefit.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I had some cash awaiting investment in my IRA when this all hit the fan, about $35K. I gradually added to holdings I already had (predictable Vanguard stock and bond index funds, including a moderate position in international). I have about 1/3 of the cash left to invest. While I've never been a market timer, this was inadvertent. I did find myself trying to guess when each downturn would bottom out and because my buys didn't occur immediately, this rarely happened. But I did buy low, in general. I think this will only get worse before it gets better (does anyone believe we are ready to "open up" the economy, and that this won't be a pandemic reboot?). Thus, I'm holding onto what's left in cash.


I have two-three years in cash outside of my IRA, and I was working part-time when this hit (having left f/t work a year or so ago). I actually am collecting unemployment now, and not spending down those 2-3 years of cash. I'll be starting to collect SS in 3 years. If the downturn hits very hard, I will probably work some more. Ugh. Meanwhile, gardening! Expenses will remain low, with a rural lifestyle - raising our food, eggs from our chickens, and wood heat.

 

[Finance Dave]

We were at 78% cash when the downturn hit...thank goodness. Started buying chunks of stocks as things dropped....about every 5% Drop on the way down. Looked stupid at first....but then bought some big chunks when it was down 25-30%. Have since sold...and we are now back to even in our portfolio even though the S&P is still down about 10-15%.

We are now back at 80% cash (money markets and laddered CDs).

We “oversaved” on purpose so that we could be very conservative like this....determined our number then added $200k to account for low returns due to conservative investing. We have agreed to NEVER go above 40% equities again...can’t sleep at night if we were 80% in equities and the market drops a lot.

 

[Mountain skier]

We lowered our equities from 50% down to 7% during March. Added a small amount of $ back in, but into a conservative Fidelity Target fund. Maybe at 10% equities now. Retiring in 11 days, so we do not want to get much more than 20% equities.

I believe the market will be in a 'W' recovery for now, so I expect at least one more significant drop. Assuming this is correct I will add another 10% into the market, otherwise will stay at the 10/90 AA.

 

[Markola]

This string is making me look hard in the mirror, because I’ve contradicted my 3/31/20 self from post #36. My job is under threat now, so I converted a target date 2020 fund in my 403b fund from 70% bonds to a total bond index fund, because I might need to spend some of it this year and for the next few years. That’s not cash, I realize, but I’m finding ways to hoard that too. In our AA overall, it’s a small flinch.

At least I’m honest! [emoji15]