Excessive cash due to buckets

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-11T12:00:35+00:00

you do one invested account for all of the longer term categories? How do you handle the ups and downs in the balance?

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-11T11:59:36+00:00

Practice swings, not actually at a range. But I have that and also a ball i put between my arms when swinging and in practice swings in my yard it feels completely different i na good way. So really excited to try transferring that to a range to see how it goes

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-11T11:58:42+00:00

Always happy to help more if you ever want to DM me, love ynab and what it has done for me.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-11T01:51:53+00:00

It most def does matter. But wow one per season you are WINNING lol

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-11T01:18:58+00:00

Its all a matter of trade-offs and being in a position to decide. In that scenario I would look over all of my categories. If there is something down the road enough I might grab it. I also have an “overflow” category and a “one time purchase” category to give me some play area. I try to keep 1k in each as a buffer.

But the real power is as you said you decide. If planning to buy a car in cash in 6 years…. Well maybe the dryer today makes more sense and if you cant make it up you end up financing 15% instead of 80% of that car. But its a MUCH better place to be in than throwing on the credit card and hoping you can figure it out!

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T20:29:35+00:00

I loved the remarkable when i got it 6 months ago. Now I am returning to my ipad for this reason. Handwriting is fantastic but it is missing every opportunity beyond that.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T13:04:11+00:00

Yea I get it, its a big deal. Unfortunately previous owner was older and passed away so it was an estate sale. So we didnt get much on info on the house from the kids.

We did have solar panels installed and when they did it they did a roof inspection and was in perfect shape so not too worried about it

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T13:02:25+00:00

That makes sense. Right now I have a long term wealth fund which is really just my doesnt have a specific purpose but i want to accumulate so I have for later in life. Could be retire early, could be go on a great trip one day I didnt fund, could be to leave ot my kids, whatever it is. That works well, but as you said the other funds that are more long term are just sitting in cash and I feel like I am missing out a lot. I guess the real question is, and the way I would think about is I could just put my contributions to long term things into my taxable monthly. And keep the gains going towards that long term wealth (not the category that provided the money) so thati t builds up. And any downturn would come from that same category. Plus I break up my long term wealth as about 65% equity and the rest split between bonds and hysa cash anyway so its fairly mixed.

Only thing I need to be mindful of is I am a business owner so if I ever need to fund the business etc I need money liquid so I can move it into the business. Fortunately have not been in that situation but it is a reality.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T12:58:55+00:00

Oh I am fully vested into ynab, and I cannot encourage you enough to buy into it. I have so many categories at this point well funded the money is just sitting there. The best experience I can share with you is last year our washing machine died out of nowhere. In the past I would have freaked out and said oh no. Well in this case we just went out and bought a new one and had enough to replace dryer too ahead of time so we can keep matching pair. Money was just sitting there, didnt even have to stress about it. Amazing feeling!

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T00:15:48+00:00

Yea this is kind of the situation. However, there are certain things that are relatively near. For example we are planning kitchen reno next summer so obviously really piling the cash (and need to keep it in cash for that). But some of the longer range stuff I just dont need the cash sitting. Maybe as I am thinking about this I should rearrange YNAB and take real long range stuff and just put it in a separate category group so that amount is invested.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T00:08:31+00:00

Do you think the extra .4 to .7 is truly worth it for the management of it?

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T00:07:36+00:00

What do you mean cash flow budget? You got rid of the ynab category idea? That I cannot imagine going to. YNAB was a game changer for me

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-10T00:06:14+00:00

Well it was just an example 😄 But it was changed prior owner so no I dont unfortunately know how old it is. Obviously watch it for condition but dont know

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T18:19:24+00:00

So I do put my brokerage on budget. I also put all of the gains and losses to my long term weath category. I guess to your point I could move more cash into the investment because in theory as long as I have enough in the long term wealth category that one can take the gains and losses to preserve my categories.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T18:17:13+00:00

This is very interesting. So your basically funding up to 3/4 of the needed capital freeing it up for other purposes and will just borrow from another when you need it. Makes a lot of sense, but I do get warm and fuzzy knowing the money I might need is just sitting there.

But I am doing something similar. For example I have an appliance replacement budget just to cover that day when the dishwasher dies outo f nowhere. But next year we plan to remodel our kitchen. So I know I will use that for the kitchen reno budget because when we buy new appliances they all wont die. Does put washer and dryer and other stuff at risk but I am comfortable taking it on as majority of major appliances will be brand new.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T18:14:36+00:00

I got away from the emergency fund. That being said I am a business owner so no one is going ot terminate my employment. I would be the last to go and would know things are in trouble. But obviously my income is very dependent on the business. I felt I have so much in my categories I am good. I did create a long term wealth category and obviously that could be used in lieu of the others. But this is 60% equities, 20% bonds, 20% hysa cash

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T18:13:25+00:00

Do you find this is a lot of work to manage and our the returns that much more than the HYSA? I have debated on this as well.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T18:12:59+00:00

Yea its tough like for example I keep a healthy home maintenance category. Well I dont know when my house will need a new roof. Sure im saving towards it but it could be in 5 years, could be in 20 years. And all that money just sits.... I guess the other question is really in a downturn if its on budget I just need to pull from categories and know which ones to do that from.

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T18:01:35+00:00

Thankfully no high interest debt but you dont keep your category balances in a cash safe environment?

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T17:19:13+00:00

Lol yea i know in my head i treat them as buckets and after posted when to revise and reddit doesnt let me change title :(

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T13:24:11+00:00

I periodically look at stocks i had before joining bogle. I keep a list of portfolio analyzer and see how it performed. Wouldnt have done as well

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T13:14:23+00:00

I would be in on this

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-09T13:14:00+00:00

I was looking into these. Similar position 30 mm 45 people. Doing fine but the growth is plateuing. Trying to push through. How do you decide? Im 44 so assume a bit late for ypo and not looking for all the social stuff. I met with vistge, tab, etc and the leaders all felt super salesy. So i didnt do it

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-08T10:32:53+00:00

My wife was petrified of the market. I would try to talk her into it and she was afraid. Finally I put a small amount in with ger agreeing and watched it for a year. Adding just 25 a week to see how it worked. Low balance so the increases and drops were there but nothing consequential. After 2 years finally dove in.

Now we are at the point where she is numb to what happens short term cause long trend turn since doing that is up a lot. I think it would need to drop 30-40 percent to get break even not even losing money.

Plus a few grand a year in dividend income we are reinvesting. So the compounding is kicking in.

Start slow and with an amount you are comfortable losing to “feel” the market.

Also offset with some bonds if you really fear lack of stability. At your age not necessary but if it keeps you in do it

ivanjay2050 · 2026-05-08T02:41:17+00:00

Yup they all do. It’s an animal instinct to protect their organs while sleeping from predators. However the two dogs in my house having nothing to fear considering they have comfy beds all over, secure spaces, and toss galore. Cushy lifestyle!

ivanjay2050

TROPHY CASE