What % of your portfolio is in cash currently?

Cus

I always have a difficulty holding cash in my SIPP because it's like an investment where I am guaranteed to lose money versus inflation. To me it's like investing in a fund that ensures I will lose a little percentage every year. There must be something better I always feel. I am many years away from retiring.
I get the idea of cash for retired or very near retired people, and having access to emergency cash etc, but not in a SIPP that cannot be accessed. 

Steve182

Mine is 97% equities (long term buy and hold), 2% in a spread betting account where I try to have a bit of fun and make some pocket money betting on share price volatility, <1% cash.

strawb_shortcake

I'm ashamed to admit we are at 100% cash. We are holding a large sum as we may pay off the mortgage in the 2 years time depending on what happens with the economy. This accounts for just over half of our total savings.
Then we have an emergency pot that would easily cover 12 months expenses.
I then have a nice little pot that I add around £5-600 a month to do work on the house, and earmarked around £5k for a holiday when we can. 
My Husband and I have very different ideas of what investing should be and it is a source of many heated debates, I'd be happy with VLS, he wants to buy a rundown house back of beyond in Germany to do up for a B&B, just because he saw a cheap house on rightmove... that is just one of his crackpot ideas. 
He doesnt work at present but when he does finally go back I dread to think what he'll spend his money on.

Steve182

annabanana82 said:

I'm ashamed to admit we are at 100% cash. We are holding a large sum as we may pay off the mortgage in the 2 years time depending on what happens with the economy. This accounts for just over half of our total savings.
Then we have an emergency pot that would easily cover 12 months expenses.
I then have a nice little pot that I add around £5-600 a month to do work on the house, and earmarked around £5k for a holiday when we can. 
My Husband and I have very different ideas of what investing should be and it is a source of many heated debates, I'd be happy with VLS, he wants to buy a rundown house back of beyond in Germany to do up for a B&B, just because he saw a cheap house on rightmove... that is just one of his crackpot ideas. 
He doesnt work at present but when he does finally go back I dread to think what he'll spend his money on.

I should probably be ashamed to admit that after actively investing for 4 years I had no idea what VLS meant until I Googled it 2 minutes ago.

Thrugelmir

Cus said:

I always have a difficulty holding cash in my SIPP because it's like an investment where I am guaranteed to lose money versus inflation. 

Never had the misfortune to select what turns out to be a bad investment? 

UpZord

@Albermarle you are right, it is actually less than a quarter if including pensions (which is mostly equities), closer to 15%

@bowlhead99 and others - I hear the general logic about having some cash based on forecast needs - I do have a little emergency buffer. Thing is, i can't bring myself to add into anything at moment! so i think i'll stay as it is. 

i'm not trying to time the market. 

@ChesterDog lucky you, how did you manage to retire in your 40s?

NottinghamKnight

Steve182 said:

annabanana82 said:

I'm ashamed to admit we are at 100% cash. We are holding a large sum as we may pay off the mortgage in the 2 years time depending on what happens with the economy. This accounts for just over half of our total savings.
Then we have an emergency pot that would easily cover 12 months expenses.
I then have a nice little pot that I add around £5-600 a month to do work on the house, and earmarked around £5k for a holiday when we can. 
My Husband and I have very different ideas of what investing should be and it is a source of many heated debates, I'd be happy with VLS, he wants to buy a rundown house back of beyond in Germany to do up for a B&B, just because he saw a cheap house on rightmove... that is just one of his crackpot ideas. 
He doesnt work at present but when he does finally go back I dread to think what he'll spend his money on.

I should probably be ashamed to admit that after actively investing for 4 years I had no idea what VLS meant until I Googled it 2 minutes ago.

We seem to get many people who know nothing about investing apart from vls.

Steve182

Cus said:

I always have a difficulty holding cash in my SIPP because it's like an investment where I am guaranteed to lose money versus inflation. To me it's like investing in a fund that ensures I will lose a little percentage every year. There must be something better I always feel. I am many years away from retiring.
I get the idea of cash for retired or very near retired people, and having access to emergency cash etc, but not in a SIPP that cannot be accessed. 

I totally agree, cash is mainly dead money. I'm not so many years from retiring but anytime I think of moving from equities to cash I realise it's just because I have concerns about a market downturn. I've now learned to accept volatility and not to try timing the market.  Downturn is a buying opportunity, hence I said "mainly" and not completely. No harm in keeping a bit of dry powder. 

Cus

Thrugelmir said:

Cus said:

I always have a difficulty holding cash in my SIPP because it's like an investment where I am guaranteed to lose money versus inflation. 

Never had the misfortune to select what turns out to be a bad investment? 

Oh yes, plenty.  But none that advertised what I will lose before I invest. 😁

bowlhead99

grumiofoundation said:

tacpot12 said:

I have savings "pots" for all the irregular expenses related to my Car, House, Pets, and Birthdays & Christmas. 

Flippantly I would say Birthdays and certainly Christmas are pretty regular!

True, regular but perhaps not frequent enough to want to keep money building up in a current account from your salary over the year so that you can have an expensive December.

When I was younger and trying to figure out a budget for things I'd need money for at some point, my main 'pots' fed by standing order each month were 'car maintenance/insurance', 'holidays' and 'clothes'. The sorts of things where you might need to spend £1k+ in a year but maybe nothing in an individual month. I didn't want to just leave the money in my current account and be tempted to blow it. They would all get added to each month and then if i had a decent chunk of expenditure (usually via my credit card) in any particular month relating to one or other of them I would sweep some money back from one of the pots to my current account to lessen the blow.

There was another general bucket for 'medium term stuff' like buying another car or house etc which was spread across regular saver accounts or cash ISAs and an S&S ISA, and might be raided for occasional large spending or unexpected disaster; having too many dedicated 'pots' is a bit wasteful as they are unlikely to all be paying the best interest rates. The notional 'emergency fund' was just having those various savings accounts collectively.

I still kept up the 'pots' system even once I had a salary that could cover a big expense out of a single pay period, as I find it useful to just sweep money out by direct debit or standing order to save or invest, and then the main bank account balance bobbles around the same sort of level while lumpy expenditure is covered from those 'budgeting' accounts.