What percentage cash are you in?

[chasesfish]

I'm just curious what % of cash the folks out there in the MMM community are right now?  I have concern the market is ahead of itself and instead of being all in, I'm pulling back slightly and letting some cash build.

I'm not one to really go after timing the market, but I like having cash to throw at stocks when it goes down.  I wanted to know everyone else's thoughts.

[Ozstache]

30% cash (fixed interest) for me at the moment. I was originally aiming for a more aggressive 90% shares/bonds mix, but I too think there's been too much of a good thing in markets in recent years and I am far from convinced that economies around the world are on the yellow brick road back to Kansas just yet. My portfolio can handle such a high cash position, especially with the inflation tracking 3% post-tax interest rates we get here in Oz, but a big correction in the near future with a more aggressive stock position would put my ER plans in jeopardy. Additionally, I am considering using my cash to get some property in my portfolio for diversity sake, but I'm having trouble finding properties with high enough yields for low enough effort compared to shares. As such, I choose the safety of "enough" over riskier "more" for now.

Edit: corrected percentages and added property considerations.

[aj_yooper]

No cash here, but my AA is 60/40 with a good chunk in low beta index funds plus value, REITs, and international.  I am at enough and have had my fill of investing drops and stalls.

[johnintaiwan]

I keep one months expenses in cash and that is all. Any money earmarked for savings gets invested during my normal cycle. I have not spent nearly enough time researching to be able to time the market. Even if you dont call it timing the market but say you are just holding on to more cash so you can buy more when the market is down, you are timing the market.

Some people may be smart enough to time the market, but for me it would be a losers game.

[lizzzi]

I keep around five per cent in the bank down the street, just for whatever. (If I need a new furnace, or get an unexpectedly high dentist bill, etc.,etc.)

[Roland of Gilead]

I keep a lot of cash because of free ride rules, about 50% to 60% usually at any one time.   My account is up 39.5% YTD so it seems to be working for me.

[Ottawa]

0.1% cash here.

[brooklynmoney]

Too much cash. 35%. I've been trying to invest it down through auto purchasing in my investment accounts.

[Nords]

I'm just curious what % of cash the folks out there in the MMM community are right now?  I have concern the market is ahead of itself and instead of being all in, I'm pulling back slightly and letting some cash build.
I'm not one to really go after timing the market, but I like having cash to throw at stocks when it goes down.  I wanted to know everyone else's thoughts.

This is why we're supposed to pick our asset allocations.  We don't have to look at the stock market and worry whether it's a repeat of 1985, 1995, 1999, or 2008.  The issue is not whether it's really different this time-- the issue is why we would ask that question in the first place.

Our retirement income is largely based on my military pension and our rental property.   Because of those assets, our retirement portfolio is at least 90% equities with two years' expenses in cash.  No bonds.  During the year we'll be anywhere from 4%-10% cash, depending on how attentive we are to our holdings.  Today it's 10%, so we have some spending to do...

[Jon_Snow]

I like to keep around 75k to 100k in cash - it's what I call my "sleep well at night" fund.

[TomTX]

Currently 15% cash, but that's because I had to liquidate holdings in order to perform a transfer from the old trustee to Vanguard. Once it hits Vanguard, I'll be down to ~2% cash (emergency fund.)

[Emilyngh]

We have around $10k in cash for irregular expenses and renovation projects.   I have no idea what the market will do next, am not going to pretend I do, and am sticking to the allocation plan (25% bonds, 75% stocks) for all money other than this emergency/convenience cash.

[KBecks2]

20 - 30% cash.  I write stock options for income against about 1/2 of that. 

[GrayGhost]

To be honest, I barely keep $1k to $2k in my bank account. If I start to save up for a house in a couple of months, that will naturally increase by a lot, but for now, every paycheck or so goes straight to Vanguard.

[Travis]

I'm at about 4% which roughly equals two months living expenses and things I'm saving up for (maintenance, tags, replace car). 

[Zamboni]

4% right now.  This will go up slightly in the short term because of a real estate project.

Pretty huge range on this board.

[NinetyFour]

About 5%.  I keep telling myself that I only need $8000 in my EF, but it keeps creeping up to $10,000 - $12,000.

[soccerluvof4]

Over my total portfolio I am at now about 25% cash from 5%.  This lets me sleep at night. I have enough in the market to support this and if there is a major correction I will be able to take advantage of it. My contributions now will be set back to what they were weekly as I feel the cash is enough now.  So if the market trade sideways or continues to climb with what I add weekly the 25% will become a lesser percentage.

[nordlead]

I'm at 20% cash. It is a combination of my EF and car fund. I probably have a bit more in there than I need to, as I could probably safely drop it to 14% and still sleep easy at night.

[Jack]

I'm at 3% cash right now, but that's because my 'stache isn't very big (the cash is checking account buffer, not savings). However, I'm not particularly bullish on stocks at the moment: except for my 401k match, money for investment is going towards loan repayment instead of stocks. Desired cash percentage is 0%.

[Vorpal]

20% cash at the moment, but with the anticipation that if a good rental property pops up we'll buy it. Finding a good rental is so hard, especially when there are professionals out there sniping the best ones :/

[robotclown]

27%, without even counting the (somewhat excessive) emergency fund.  Need to find some values in this market.

[mm31]

I'm at 100% cash for my emergency fund and short-term stuff. I'm 80/20 stocks for retirement. I'm 60/40 stocks for various other medium-term savings. For me it makes no sense to have a "global" cash allocation number in mid, since my financial goals have all different time frames

[bigchrisb]

I'm currently at about 4% net cash.  However, up to date I've been running highly leveraged into stocks, so more like -70% cash (debt = 70% of net worth, or ~41% of total asset value).

 

[rmendpara]

Looks like I'm around 10% cash savings and 10% low-risk (family loan) as a percentage of my investable assets (not including real estate).

I'd prefer another $5k or so in cash savings, though by the end of the year, it will probably still be ~10% of investable assets. I may also increase the loan to a family member as they have a student loan at 6.8% and I'm more than happy to loan them money at 5%.

[theglobetrotter]

We have 20% of our total asset in liquid form but I will have more in a few minutes/hrs when my funds clear. I had to sell a few class A funds, moving out of Ed Jones, due to loads and not sure what I will do next. It'll "just" be 6% more and leaning more towards buying more indexes.

I've never managed our own investments before and the whole bear market news scare me. When 2008-09 happened, we didn't yet have a decent amount of money in our portfolio. We just started contributing regularly in '04 (age 26/30). Before today our investment was 98% stocks, mostly due to me not communicating with the Ed Jones guy after I quit my job, and will be at a 69/25/6 stock/bond/cash ratio. After tomorrow, it may be 75/25 stocks/bond.

We will have a bit of pension money when hubby retires in 4yrs, if he retires that is, from the military and I have about $500/mo from a state pension at age 65 (and I plan on working again in a few years after we move back stateside), but I am still nervous :)

[ephillipsme]

  I have been thinking the same thing that the market is a bit pricy.  I have been letting the cash side increase, overall I have not changed or sold anything to go into cash just taking a wait and see view.  I would say around 10% is in cash at this point.

[AssetGrinder]

1% for me. I like to be fully invested into markets. If there was a huge crash and a buying opportunity arises I will use the loads of margin I have that is untapped. Till that time I will invest all my fixed income and dividend income into the overvalued markets. Who knows how long this bull run will last. Could be 1 day or it could be ten years.

[dragoncar]

10% atm

[Middlesbrough]

I am young so I don't care about risk.

401k=0% cash. Not touching for a long time so need for timing, just cost averaging my mix.
IRA=0-15% cash. I invest in individual stocks, so if I just found a bargain I have no cash, but it can get up to the 15% mark waiting for the right price.
Liquidity. About a month and a half of expenses. I am young and risky I guess.

[ivyhedge]

2%.

[MidwestGal]

15%.

[Mr. FI]

Within my index investments, I have like 1.5% cash that those companies hold for whatever reason. I also have an emergency fund of $5,000ish and then I generally have at least $1000 in my checking accounts because of fee's (bank minimums). So in total, around 18%. I've thought about being more aggressive with it, but with the bull run at 5 years and some unforseen expenditures, I'm ok with having that cash around.

[Ian]

20% cash, but that will decrease as I invest more.

[Zoot Allures]

Probably less than 1%.

I have a stable job, a personal line of credit I can tap if I need to, and a Roth IRA that does double-duty as an emergency fund (though I've never had to use it for this purpose and don't expect to).

[Thedudeabides]

As close to zero as possible. When I receive cash I immediately invest it.

If something happens I could use credit cards, lines of credit, or sell investments if needed.

For me personally the opportunity cost of keeping cash on hand is not worth it. But this is a personal decision. Keep as much on hand as will allow you to sleep at night.

[SoCalStache]

10% Cash.  This feels like way too much to have sitting on the sidelines but my conservative side says we need this hedge.

[WillPen]

This is something I'm trying to figure out now. My wife and I just made a real-estate investment that dinged our cash holdings pretty good. Right now we have enough cash to get us through a month but not much more. Our jobs are very secure but I'm trying to figure out what to build it to.

I'm thinking 2-3 month's worth, where it will sit in a high yield checking account that pays 4.5% annually. Everything in excess of that mount will go into a brokerage account

[Thedudeabides]

This is something I'm trying to figure out now. My wife and I just made a real-estate investment that dinged our cash holdings pretty good. Right now we have enough cash to get us through a month but not much more. Our jobs are very secure but I'm trying to figure out what to build it to.

I'm thinking 2-3 month's worth, where it will sit in a high yield checking account that pays 4.5% annually. Everything in excess of that mount will go into a brokerage account

Wow, 4.5%. That's an awesome rate for checking. Do you mind sharing which bank?

[LowER]

I like to keep around 75k to 100k in cash - it's what I call my "sleep well at night" fund.

Ditto.  I'm still recovering from living for 5 years paycheck to paycheck while aggressively paying down debt.  Debt is long gone but my PTSD from the paycheck to paycheck years is not.  I've lost quite a bit in the last year from drag but it's cheaper than therapy to deal with all the stress from years of borderline homelessness.

[milesdividendmd]

This is something I'm trying to figure out now. My wife and I just made a real-estate investment that dinged our cash holdings pretty good. Right now we have enough cash to get us through a month but not much more. Our jobs are very secure but I'm trying to figure out what to build it to.

I'm thinking 2-3 month's worth, where it will sit in a high yield checking account that pays 4.5% annually. Everything in excess of that mount will go into a brokerage account

Wow, 4.5%. That's an awesome rate for checking. Do you mind sharing which bank?

That is awesome. It is also a typo, I'd wager.

No FDIC insured checking account can possibly yield that much when 10 year treasuries yield less than 3%.

[Rob]

I'm at about -1.5% cash right now as I have some 0% APR debt leveraged on credit cards. If you excluded that, I'm at about 1% cash most of the time. Always between 0% and 3%.

[PatrickJ]

I recently sold some stocks to free up money for a potential real estate investment. The potential real estate investment ended up not coming to fruition so now I have 50% of my investable assets in cash. I'm a little lost about what to do. I have been buying low cost index funds over time but I'm a little nervous about plopping a huge chunk into stocks given that the market is kinda expensive. Any suggestions?

[Cottonswab]

30-40%.  Dry powder waiting for a good opportunity. 

If I was willing to put in the time and effort, I would probably have invested a good chunk of this in real estate. 

[RapmasterD]

5%.

[GGNoob]

Just enough for next months bills.


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[pom]

I am at 2% right now.

It usually varies between 1% and 2%.

[BFGirl]

85% cash, but plan to drop to around 33% as I begin investing over the next few years.

[happyfeet]

Too much.  Kept waiting for the market to drop.  Yea right.  That was like 18 months ago.  About  20% of assets.  Still waiting.  But I would keep about $50,000 cash around for emergency living expenses.  Don't judge.  We are super conservative.

[nereo]

I'm just curious what % of cash the folks out there in the MMM community are right now?  I have concern the market is ahead of itself and instead of being all in, I'm pulling back slightly and letting some cash build.

I'm just over 10% cash, but that has nothing to do with trying to time the market.  I have two student loans currently in deferment, and those will enter repayment in about 16 months.  So I have money earmarked for those loans in a savings account earning 0.5%.  Ironically, even though I'm loosing to inflation, I'm winning against the 0% SL. I'll pay off the loan a week or two before it goes back to 6.8%.

Personally I don't hold a cash position waiting for 'better market conditions'.  My strategy can be defined as investing "as much in as I can, whenever I can".