SecondCor521
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But FIRECalc assumes that that money goes away completely, so even in the face of inflation and even if you held that excess cash at 0% return*, you would still be safer than the case for which FIRECalc solved.
* Although I assume you would have that excess cash earning at least some return that would offset some inflation.
Ah, I misunderstood your last sentence I quoted.
I agree that having extra assets outside of whatever portfolio one puts into FIREcalc make your actual risk safer than what FIREcalc calculates - unless those outside assets have some potential to leak back and destroy your portfolio, it would have to be so. Outside cash certainly does this.
I was setting aside FIREcalc considerations and just looking at the notion of holding cash vs. other investments. In that view, cash does have inflation risk as I noted and may or may not be safer than other options depending on what risks one considers and of course what timeframe a person is looking at.