Would you still invest if you didnt have to?

[samclem]

BTW - BB doesn't suggest avoiding stocks for every client (from the article in the previous link):

"Bernstein defines a risk-free portfolio as one adequate for a basic retirement—a so-called liability-matching portfolio. ”

Sorry, but that's ridiculous, and i doubt Bernstein said it. By that "definition" nearly everyone reading this board has risk-free portfolio, which is not at all the same as his "liability-matching" portfolio.

I wonder how many people will find out that they've really created a "liability-causing" portfolio by following his advice, conflating "volatility" and "risk."

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Sorry, but that's ridiculous, and i doubt Bernstein said it. By that "definition" nearly everyone reading this board has risk-free portfolio, which is not at all the same as his "liability-matching" portfolio.

I wonder how many people will find out that they've really created a "liability-causing" portfolio by following his advice, conflating "volatility" and "risk."

I see it is not your style, but not everyone needs or wants to invest in stock and bond mutual funds in order to retire, and some posters were or are actively looking for alternatives.

 

[W2R]

Yes, because I think/hope that investing will provide at least some buffer against heavy inflation, should that occur.

 

[Midpack]

I would probably still keep at least 30% in equities and ignore it.

You're talking about a pretty large ratio of funds to expenses/needs if you can live off a CD only scenario and still beat inflation. And you can probably live quite well on 80% of it. So putting 30% in stocks to combat long-term inflation far more efficiently than CDs ever will, seems prudent. You have so much that ignoring the volatility in 30% of it should be relatively easy to do. So that chunk goes up and down by 50% now and then - so what.

Another way to put it: to live off CDs and adjust for inflation requires that you take some of the CD income you are paid each year and reinvest it to let the CDs grow with inflation.

Alternatively, you could just take all the CD interest as income, and leave the 30% invested in stocks grow over time to make up for inflation. You could probably even take dividend income from this portion (but be sure to reinvest all capital gains) and it would probably take care of inflation for you over the long term. You can rebalance occasionally and buy more CDs, if you decide the % invested in equities has crept up too high.

Important issue: if CDs are paying say 2.5%, and inflation is running 1%, you only have 1.5% left after inflation as income. AND you have to pay income taxes on that total 2.5% interest paid, so you have even less available to live off of after taxes.

This was going to be my answer --- thanks Audrey, you said it better than I would have. You never know what inflation might do over a decades long retirement, better to have some hedge by investing in equities.