[Keith]

I know the market is due to some correction and what goes up must come down. With the current market uncertainty, would it be wise to keep money in cash, CD or another fund until the market settles down?

We do have money in VUSXX and thinking of putting more in this funds versus VTI and VOO.

Thoughts..

[Ron]

If you are in accumulation with a good number of years left, not a great idea. If you are transitioning towards early retirement or decumulation best continue with whatever plan you have for that transition.

The S&P 500 has already dropped 8-9% from it’s high (VOO was over $560 and now is under $520).

Generally making moves after you hear the turmoil news is not the best approach.

If you are close to where you should start to be thinking about a gradual transition from accumulation to decumulation, try to analyze what your desired decumulation portfolio will be and perhaps start incorporating it, hopefully according to a general plan, so you get some familiarity with those new asset classes.

[Lori]

When Trump was elected in Nov 2024, I started shaving off gains from some of my stock index funds, and put them into Vanguard’s VMFXX money market fund.

My money is safe and earns 4-5% monthly dividends.

Minimum initial investment is $3,000. 10% of my and hubby’s money is now in VMFXX. It will last at least 5 years before I would need to touch any of my stock funds.

That gives plenty of time for the stock market to come back. The other 90% of our investments are stock index funds.

We’ve been retired 3 years and I still feel fine staying aggressively invested.

[Christopher]

It’ll look wise right up until it doesn’t. Learn about the biases we have, and how we tell ourselves we made the right choice whatever we decide.

Keeping cash you’ll need “soon” as cash or near-cash is wise at pretty much all times.

Cash not needed “soon” should typically be invested, or it’ll just be speculated with.

At any given moment, the “current uncertainty” feels high. “This time is different” and all that jazz.

In retrospect, we typically look dumb thinking that.

[Katie]

Do you usually buy things when they’re at their lowest or highest price?

[Frank]

Nah. Market timing on news usually doesn’t work very well.

[Julie]

Pick a strategy that supports your goals, timeline, and risk tolerance…and stick with it.

Otherwise, you are timing the market and that rarely works out well.

[Linda]

If you had a well thought plan and a diversified portfolio, stick to it, do not make any adjustments. This is part of the process.

It’s easy to stick to it when everything is rosey.

it’s the people who stick to it during the downturns that end up winning.

Turn off the noise and Believe in the markets.

[Peter]

Keep dollar cost averaging. No reason to change anything. Set it and forget it.

If you are concerned, could always pad your emergency fund.

[Brian]

If you are a long term investor this temporary market downturn is meaningless to you.

I like buying things when they are on sale.

[Danny]

What does your personal investing statement say to do during events like this?

Typically, these should be written without the rollercoaster of emotions of volitilty and then used as a guide when emotions are driving the bus.

[Joel]

The cool part is that you get to pick how you invest. I trimmed some VTI in late October, and now below those levels I trimmed.

Now I can choose to keep in cash or add back in.

[Johnathan]

The market will rebound prior to things feeling “settled” — and taking it a step further, things are never fully settled, theres always a new rumor or headline or fear taking center stage so the best thing you can do is invest your long term money in an allocation that makes sense for your goals & ignore the short term noise.

You should already have money in cash/CDs/HYSA that is available to meet all short term spending & potential emergency needs.

Most people should probably not be investing long term money in these types of short term investments though.

[Webber]

I’m sticking with my policy on maintaining our Asset Allocation. We retired back in Jan 2008 with an AA of 80/20. About every 5 years we have lowered it by 5 points where today the AA goal is 65/35.

The policy is; whenever our AA drifts by 5 points, in either direction, we rebalance.

Our AA had climbed to 75/25 recently (before tRump took office) so we sold a bunch of equities and moved it to cash (Money Market accounts @ 4.24%).

I was only able to bring it down to 70/30 without incurring capital gains so I decided to hold it there.

Now I’m waiting for it to drop to 60/40 before I rebalance again to bring it back to the desired 65/35.

The way tRump is driving the market down with his on again, off again tariff threats I expect to be rebalancing again soon!

Btw, in case you are unaware, rebalancing is also a way to buy low and sell high!

[Author]

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