Sorry, I was procrastinating. Did something happen? :)
(Googles "S&P 500". 2667...)
Stock benchmark down a couple percent this year, then. When I sell some stock to cover upcoming expenses, I will have to sell a couple percent more than I would have. But I only sell a couple percent of my portfolio at a time, covering months' worth of expenses, so the difference is a percent of a percent. Small! Also doesn't hurt because that was part of the plan, just didn't know when.
@ACyclist, what is the pain about?
1. Does it feel the future is disappearing, and hope is lost?
2. That people who were skeptical about your stock investing are proven right, you are proven stupid and they will laugh at you?
3. Same as 2, but it's family, so Thanksgiving will suck?
4. Falling price means your effort is failing, the disappointment saps the energy you need to get out of bed and earn more money to invest?
5. Some other variation?
I felt variations of 1 through 4 at some point in the past, so these are honest questions. No shame, for sure. I ask them because in each case, the emotional impact was only a little related to the stock market, it was a mostly related to the meaning that investment had in my personal perspective at the time.
What does stock market investing mean to you? If it hurts to see a 2% drop or 10% drop, and you plan to work 13 more years, it's worth analyzing the emotions somehow. You have a lot of living in front of you - I hope you can learn to enjoy most of it! Hopefully doing so will also make wise behavior (such as steady investing) easier too. Anyway, congrats on staying the course so far.
Fwiw, 35% cash/bonds for an earner/investor with low risk tolerance sounds like a good balance. It's not aggressive for your life situation, but is aggressive for your risk tolerance, so more or less balanced. Good job.