Moving to cash | Vanguard

Transcript

Maria Bruno: There is an opportunity cost to staying in cash either having too much for your portfolio in cash or staying in cash for too long. It may feel safe but, essentially, you’re staying in the sidelines and you’re foregoing market participation. So you may feel like you’re being safe because you’re preserving your money. However, when you think about inflation over time, you’re actually decreasing your purchase power because your portfolio is not able to grow with inflation. So that’s a huge risk over time. So that would be my biggest caveat in terms of staying out of the market.

The other thing is the things that are keeping you from getting out of the market, what’s going to make you feel comfortable as an investor to get back into the market. And, essentially, it’s market timing.

Tim Buckley: Maria, I would say the person who is thinking of going to cash just be comfortable with that standard of living that you’re living well below your means, you’re going to cash because you want to take risk off the table, and, look, you’re going to lose purchasing power over time. But if it helps you sleep better at night and you’re comfortable that living below your means and you’re going to be that way because your means will be eroded through inflation over time, then, hey, we’re not going to tell you don’t do that. But, Maria, you bring up some great points about why it’s just for those people who are very well off and living below those means.