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I'm financially conservative, and still building for retirement, which I HOPE is only 9 years away.
My 89 year old mom even still had at least SOME money in a balanced fund.
And I personally don't ever plan to get completely out of stocks.
The most cash-heavy I've ever been is 50/50, cash to stocks and bonds.
Willistonite, put it best: It is all about how much risk you can live with….
I do some things that absolutely don't make the best financial sense, BUT it's what I need to do to sleep at night.
For example, IF I think paying off a given credit card bill will take my cash to low -- I'll keep cash, but pay 5% on a credit card transfer to finish paying off the balance at 0%. Makes no money sense. But keeps my cash in my pockets. And my head restfully on my pillow.
Can you sleep better knowing your money is 99% safe but only getting two percent? Or would you toss and turn all night thinking there may be a world crisis and your investments funding your retirement could crash 70 percent?
For example, lets say North Korea attacks Japan or South Korea using a nuke. The world stock markets could drop 80% overnight and wipe out the savings of millions of retired folks.
The question was "Anyone here retire with all their money in the bank (collecting under 1%)"
I sleep fine. I'm not a worst case scenario type of person. I don't have a lot to lose so I don't spend much time worrying about losing it.
This is a sore subject for me. I know banks use that money to fund their mortgages, only having to have a certain % of their loans... they are not sharing that income with those of us who have liquid cash in accounts. Looking at my bank statement this morning, I figured I got a bit less than .001% interest this month. Pitiful. We keep a certain amount liquid so we can fund our own business needs as they arise. I guess we make up some of that interest by not having business loans.
Last month I got disgusted with the interest rates and I went down to the bank and put $10,000 on the mortgage. Interest on that, though low, is still better than what I'm getting in the bank.
I know I should look around at getting better interest somewhere.
I've been getting 4-5% on cash, but not CDs. The market is at an all time high, so I'm not surprised that 54 millions people think long term investment is cash.
I checked the stock box, but I do keep an estimate for 1 year's expenses in cash. Once we pay off the mortgage (rate is so low, it was better to keep investments), and all income sources come online, we are projected to not need any retirement funds for about 15 years. So I sleep well invested in stocks, knowing we could take a 50% drop and still survive. The only drawback is the kids won't get much of an inheritance.
I'm within a year of retirement and stay in the 60/40 (equities/bonds) to 40/60 range for my 401k which is the recommended range for retirees in their 60's or older. This is comfortable for me as I'm not a risk taker and the equities are index funds. My investments are only 25% of my retirement income and will primarily go towards discretionary expenses like travel so if I lost that money in some huge market crash, it would not be a disaster and I would not lose all of it. And I am at the point where my investments are 25 to 30 times what I will need on an annual basis so I don't have to keep growing the money but am mostly concerned with keeping up with inflation.
I have about 10% in cash in CDs and online money markets at about 1% interest. These are funds that I plan to use in the next two years or so for home improvements, a car, etc.
I have another 10% in a Roth IRA in 90% equities as the distributions will be tax free. It would be 100% equities but I have some money in Vanguard Wellington, a balanced mutual fund. I was concerned at one time that this fund might be closed to future investors so made sure that I kept it.
Of what we have in the market, 45% bonds and 40% stocks, all in index funds. 15% cash, of which 5% is held in reserve for future buying opportunities. We also own 2 rental condos, tho those are long term investments, since the rent barely covers mortgage, fees, and other expenses. I also have a small pension which covers most regular living expenses. Holding off on collecting SS as long as we can.
We have a ridiculous amount of money in cash and that's because I'm getting lazy in my old age. Our biggest asset by far is John's pension and deferred comp. The deferred comp is in a fixed account now, which was against my better judgement when John insisted after he retired three years ago. The fixed account has a pretty good growth rate compared to the stagnant cash in the savings accounts. The rest is in real estate.
I don't even want the rentals any more and plan on selling them off in about three more years. Three more long years, ugh.
Ever since my beast cancer scare a year ago my whole mentality has changed. I don't care about anything but having fun these days and staying healthy. I'm certainly not going to depart early leaving all that money behind for John to spend on some gold digging bimbo. No and way.
I don't like risk. Everything is in real estate and cash.
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