How much cash do you have sitting on the sidelines?

[corn18]

I have cash for expenses, but I don't consider that sitting on the sidelines. Based on the forum this was posted in, I think the cash in question would be for buying investments. I have none of that.

 

[MarieIG]

That's a bit hard for me to answer, but a rough estimate (dry powder - not emergency funds) 10 - 15%. I'm not counting brokered CD's which I could sell.

 

[target2019]

Total portfolio is 20% cash, CD, MMF. 1% of the portfolio is the USD variety sitting in low-interest checking or savings.

 

[Harris4crna]

I am currently 20%. I am saving for a house.

Otherwise, I am 60:30:10 with 10% being cash.

 

[FREE866]

Timely thread for me. Retired January 2017. I ran every calculator 100x over and concluded to stay basically all equity and just sell a few times a year to meet my expenses. April 2025 I made the decision to keep~ 10% of total portfolio in cash which equates to 3+ years of expenses conservatively. If market moves sideways or goes up I'll continue to liquidate equities to meet expenses , but if we have a bear market I can use the cash raised.

 

[Flieger]

Like some others, depends on how you look at it, either 7.5% or 21%.

SPAXX - 1.5%
JAAA/JBBB - 13.5%
Defined Contribution Pension - 6%

Flieger

 

[Out of Steam]

After paying off a car and going on an expensive vacation, my wife and I are about 3 percentage points below our 45% stock retirement account target. We're also (finally) building our savings outside of retirement accounts, which has been a goal since before we retired. The early car payoff was part of that.

Like businesses more generally, it's hard to see how to plan financially right now with rapidly changing trade and economic policies. For the moment, I'll leave our allocations alone.

 

[pb4uski]

My target is about 3% but sometimes it is temporarily over that with calls and maturities.

 

[HappilyRetired]

About 8% of our portfolio is in Cash......fully invested in equities, living on dividends, and cash available if/when the market goes long term into a bear market, so we don't have to sell anything to survive. 92% fully invested in equities. Don't believe in bonds or annuities. Just keep enough cash to last a 2-3yr span. Since investing last 20 years, our portfolio is up 324.35% on average.

 

[Out of Steam]

Currently only 17k in emergency funds, which is low for us, but as been mentioned there are other options.

That is about where our emergency funds are right now, heading for $25K. For many years, we were as low as $10K, which now seems inadequate.

As a mitigating factor, our fixed income investments (TIAA Traditional and TSP G Fund) have little or no market risk.

 

[jollystomper]

We have about 14% in cash across all our bank/investment accounts , and 34% in our taxable accounts. It is currently about 4.5 years of projected spending beyond the cash that comes in from my pension and DW's SS.

 

[brett]

About 3 percent. Unusually high because we will be buying a new vehicle in the next few months.

The rest...income tax installments, travel, and just in case.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Almost certainly too much, but it works for me.

I subscribe to the theory that any money you might need in the next 3 years should not be in the stock market.

I keep major priorities walled off from my retirement accounts. It’s an easy way to do accounting.

One account contains an emergency reserve, MM for capital improvements on our rental property and our building reserve to buy a new car. We have very high deductibles so our “emergency” fund is also a bit of self-insurance.

Another account contains commitments we’ve made to family for help, some MM we keep liquid in case something bad happens to a family member and cash we target to certain charities.

For retirement spending, I keep the next year of spending in a MM fund.

There is less than 2% cash in my retirement/long term accounts.

Within anyone of those buckets the cash positions are pretty rational. Looking across the buckets, however, it’s unlikely all of those potential short term issues arrive at once so on the whole I have too much MM/cash.

 

[audreyh1]

My invested cash is not sitting on the sidelines (aka “dry powder”) waiting for some investable event. It’s part of my asset allocation.

In Jan I do generally set aside about a year’s worth of funds to cover annual expenses, but this is not “on the sidelines” and hasn’t changed based on market or political outlook.

 

[pacergal]

Easily accessible "cash" about $30,000 in savings acct., hidden safe at home, and money market at the brokerage.

 

[Fermion]

If short term bonds count as sidelines, about $600k.

 

[dobig]

This morning put some money to work and down to 17% from 22%.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

10.5% of total portfolio is cash for equities today or 26% of equity allowance is in cash.
Currently 51% bonds and 35% equities.

 

[Markola]

4.5 years living expenses till the time of earliest SS availability. It includes savings, money market, CD ladder, I-bonds.

This is how I kinda think of it.

Anyone “spending the cash and also bonds first” as a way to bridge to SS?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I keep about 2 years worth of spending (after also considering my military retirement pay and VA disability). Purpose of that money is to mitigate sequence of returns risk.

 

[joesxm3]

This is how I kinda think of it.

Anyone “spending the cash and also bonds first” as a way to bridge to SS?

I had a stupidly low equity / high cash position when I retired in 2016. I have been living off the cash pile ever since then. I will take SS at 70 which will occur at the end of 2026.

Up to 2021 I considered that spending the cash was the equivalent of increasing my equity allocation. I finally decided to start buying some volatile equities at the beginning of 2022 (perfect timing ).

I still have enough T-Bill in my taxable account to cover the next four years. So far I have not been forced to sell anything to raise cash.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

This is how I kinda think of it.

Anyone “spending the cash and also bonds first” as a way to bridge to SS?

I have an explicit TIPS ladder as a bridge to SS. (It only covers comfortable baseline expenses.)

 

[Markola]

I subscribe to the theory that any money you might need in the next 3 years should not be in the stock market.

For a long time, I bought the line that I didn’t need cash, because bonds index funds could serve that purpose. Then I experienced the 2022 nosedive and the lousy returns since, and no longer trust that assumption. I’m sleeping better with a years worth of cash in a money market earning about 4%.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

For a long time, I bought the line that I didn’t need cash, because bonds index funds could serve that purpose. Then I experienced the 2022 nosedive and the lousy returns since, and no longer trust that assumption. I’m sleeping better with a years worth of cash in a money market earning about 4%.

I agree. Bond funds are not as "safe" as we were sold they'd be. Neither are individual bonds, The good ones get called in. The bad ones (Lehman) go broke.

You can hold a lot of cd's that pay less than bonds and still come out way ahead of holding bonds that get called in or go broke. Don't feel any safer that your bonds are going to get paid before stock holders. If your company goes broke your bond ain't worth much either.

I may be simple, but it if you want safe money put it in laddered CD's. If you have time to spare( 3,4 year plus.) Put it in stock index fund. Each year take some stock and feed your cd's. If stocks are down, you have a year or two to catch up.

A couple, three years income of cash in cd ladders works for me. I never think of percentages, I think of year's living expenses. 2-3 years worth makes me comfortable. Any more that that makes me feel like I might be missing out on stock market long term performance.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

As for cash money currency. I keep about $200 - $500 cash in the house and on me, all US currency in $50 and $100 bills. Plus I have about $5k in silver bullion coins in case it all hits the fan and I need to barter. I am not a hoarder and hope it never happens. I don't plan on ever using the silver coins for anything, just a little peace of mind.

Again, I am not a hoarder but have learned to live a life of independence here on the farm.

Having a few hundred in cash in all US bills feels good. Small denominations preferred.