Anyone else sitting on cash?

[Scott 2]

Up to about 10% of net worth now, probably 5 years expenses.

I've continued my dollar cost averaging in the retirement accounts, but I just can't bring myself to blindly throw extra money into the index funds. I know sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next crash is a risky move too, but I'm so lazy, learning about other options on top of working full time sounds terrible...

I am trying to buy more material goods, so things are at 100% repair / optimization standards at home, but again the laziness gets me. Shopping is the worst.

[slowtraveler]

I'm still dca in. I don't think 10% is huge. Buffet called that a reasonable cash allocation in the recommendation for his will and other investors. Up to 10% sounds like a fat e fund rather than sitting on cash to me.

There are some good ways to conservatively grow like Wellesley or permanent portfolio if all in on stocks isn't calling you.

[slsdly]

I'm closer to 20% cash at the moment. But then again, I have nothing in bonds, around 10% in rate-reset preferred shares, another 10% in REITs, under 5% in gold/silver and the remainder in equities. I'm not sure how I feel about anything investing related right now, so I've mostly punted and let the cash build up. I don't dwell on it.

[Seppia]

I'm at 24% cash, 76% stocks right now.
Been upping the cash since January-February and a little more aggressively lately.
I'm not selling anything though, just investing a smaller percentage of my monthly savings.
Up until December 2016 I was 100% stocks plus an approximately 2.5 years emergency fund.
I used to invest 100% of my savings, since January it's been about 50%, with the rest let sit idle, plus in January I got a fairly big bonus that I also haven't invested, so my cash/emergency fund is up to more or less 5 years of expenses.
I'll probably stopupping the cash% when it gets to 30%, and will keep it constant from then on, until a big correction / bear market is under way (rules-based)
I own zero bonds because here in Europe it makes absolutely no sense.

[George the original one]

Was sitting on cash, but buying new car on Friday (a year or two sooner than planned) has drained out the cash. Car accident (other driver was ticketed) was the reason. All part of the flux of being retired... glad I don't have to work around the pressures of employment at the same time!

[Kriegsspiel]

I'm also at 20% cash between my PP allocation and a big chunk cooling on the sidelines. I'm going to be buying a car and some real estate in the near term. I think if I wasn't, I'd be doing the same thing though: building up the PP or buying T-bills waiting for something to pop up.

[SavingWithBabies]

I'm sitting on about 10% of my net worth but it wasn't intentional. I am still 401k investing but post tax savings that were going into mutual funds is now going to cash too.

[wood]

My networth isn't so high yet, about $ 150k.
In 2016 I had 22% cash.
So far 2017 I have 18% cash.
The higher my networth, the closer to 10% cash I'm gonna be.

[Scott 2]

I've historically held 6-12 months in cash, so this is quite a change for me. It's growing around 3 months expenses per month, as well. Guess I'm not that cash heavy compared to some here.

One could argue we're due for a new car. 13 years old, 90k miles. But it keeps going, and there's something so care free about driving a near worthless vehicle. Similar for many of our major appliances. Also, then I don't have to pick out the new ones.

[Forskaren]

I am not holding much cash. I got about $300 in real cash at home. I normally got between $300-$4000 in my bank account, depending on when I got my salary. Most things I pay with credit cards while avoiding any fees and interest by paying paying back the whole amount in time.

I have a debt that corresponds to about 5% of the stocks I own. The debt is larger than the value of my car, gold, and furniture. I own stocks corresponding to about 102% of my net worth, not including retirement savings.

[Noedig]

I am like 0.5% cash. I just might regret that this time next month. But my family motto is "No market timing, buy and hold forever" or whatever that might be in latin "Non forum tempusibilus, emptio tenere in perpetuitum". Or Harry Potter latin, anyway.

[Lucky C]

Yup, mostly cash now. I'm about 6 months from hitting my FI goal number and about 9 months from my planned quit day. Income going to savings is still accumulating far faster than I can expect in investment gains, so I would rather play it safe and hit my goal date. No fear of missing out.

If my NW drops more than about 5% that will push my FI date out past my goal quit day. If it were to drop about 10% that would delay me by several months which would be a real disappointment, but I could live with it. And of course this market (US equities) resembles times that were followed by 50%+ drawdowns, which would take a couple more years of work to recover from - out of the question!

I don't plan on quitting before the 9 month time frame, so there isn't much benefit in maybe getting a few % more money before then by having a higher risk portfolio. It would just be more money than I would need. Extra risk for no good reason.

So that is my reasoning based on my personal timing which I don't recommend to others, but there are probably some folks close to FI that are getting worried they could blow it this close to the finish line, with the markets where they are now.

[Farm_or]

Yes. About 2/3 dry powder now. Been DCA out of stocks every month since April. Zero bonds.

Every group needs outliers. I'm happy to miss out on a little profit taking at the crest so I don't feel my stomach in my throat when the coaster goes down.

That said, I am still bullish on energy; I will let that ride for a couple of years...

All the renewed interest in international has gotten my attention. What you don't know can hurt you. There's so much we don't understand beyond our shores. Cultural diversity can be costly. For example, I got burned in the nineties because of a South Korea government bail out.

Government bail outs were not all that common back then, and I considered it unthinkable for a capitalist Asian nation. If I lived in South Korea, I probably would not have been so shocked (and awed)...

[bryan]

I have a significant chunk of cash, but I'm not particularly proud of it. Namely I worry of the systemic risk that is the USD.

[oldbeyond]

I'm at 65/25/10 cash(bank account and 1-2 years CDs in local currency)/stocks(global index with a tilt towards Europe, EM and value)/gold(SGOL) in my liquid assets. Originally this was due to uncertainty about the size of our condo down payment, but given valuations I'm in no rush to take on more equity risk. For now I'll split our surplus between this allocation(upping the gold to 15%) and paying off the mortgage.