Hi everyone, I have a question I wanted to run by the group.
I'm right at 18 months from my planned FIRE date and DH FIREd shortly over two years ago. However, I may FIRE in the summer of 2019, depending on how I feel about my job at that point. Future RSU vesting is what keeps me doing the daily grind.
My question is how much (in terms of months or years) cash, non-retirement, most people think is a good idea to have on hand vs. in the markets. I ask because, today, we have one year of living expenses in a high-yield MMA and in the past six months have transferred another two years' worth of expenses up to Vanguard. Now with the markets being down, I am second-guessing myself on having moved the other two years' worth into the market.
I am interested in how others handle this and whether you keep just one year of non-invested savings on hand, or more. Part of me thinks we have time for the markets to recover before the second and third year of funds would be needed and that losing out on potential gains would be foolish, but the more emotional part of me would rather that the cash be available and not subject to the fluctuation of the markets. I am not currently losing sleep over this but if the markets were to go down another 20% or so, I might.
I am not doing a case study here, but will mention that we have zero debt, own our house free and clear, and have no dependents outside of the two of us. In the event we needed to, we could certainly cut back and make the current cash on hand last more in the range of 18-21 months - 24 months might be a bit of a stretch. Our retirement accounts are very healthy and we're continuing to max my 401K, our HSA, DH's IRA contribution (+ catch-up) and DH's HSA catch-up contribution. Of course, this would change if I were to pull the plug on working. We do not plan to tap into DH's retirement funds until at least 2020, preferably 2022 or beyond.
So, back to the question, how much non-retirement, cash savings do you FIREd folks keep outside of the markets?
Thanks for your input.