Elyse Foster, CFP® of Harbor Wealth Management in Boulder, CO recently spoke with journalist Neal Templin about the importance of cash buckets.
March 6, 2021 –
While market downturns can be unnerving for any investor, they can be devastating for retirees who have begun spending down investments and must sell depleted shares of stock. If the market rebounds, those shares are no longer there. A string of bad years early in retirement, called sequence-of-return risk, can devastate a portfolio.
Building a cash cushion can be as simple as setting aside cash in a bank account. Yields are low but its purpose is to give you peace of mind, not earn a lot of interest. When stocks get pounded, you simply stop drawing money from your investment portfolio and live off your savings for a while.
Cash buckets come in handy for all sorts of emergencies.
Last year, financial advisor Elyse Foster of Boulder, Colo., had one client who had had expensive repairs on his home and was glad to have the cash. She had another client who owned a lot of commercial real estate in Colorado who was forced to make concessions due to the pandemic and needed the cash.
“Clients said they were able to sleep at night through the volatility and uncertainty knowing they had the buffer to get them through,” she says.
See the full Barron’s article published March 6, 2021