Thank you for all of this.
The point about leaving investments sitting in cash is very true as I have seen one of my children do this. He is better about it now, but tens of thousands sat in a brokerage account uninvested for longer than I care to remember.
I have well over 100k in a high yield savings account. I know that it is barely keeping up with inflation, but I canāt bring myself to invest it. I want the flexibility of a wad of money, and am convinced that the stock market is going to tank badly soon. (We are in various stock index funds with our 401k Roth accounts, and also with pre-tax retirement accounts). We also have fixed defined benefit pensions with no costs-of-living adjustments, and I am collecting social security. (DH will hold off collecting SS until 70.). We are fairly frugal, and can live off the pensions and bank the remaining funds for when inflation makes our pensions inadequate to live on.
At least thatās the plan! So much will depend on inflation, and the continuation of our great retiree subsidized Medicare advantage health plan.
Not interested in traveling much, own our little house, own our little car,no expensive hobbies, and DH makes a mean pot of beans, but I am still a little nervous about inflation!
Pardon my rant but I have to get it off my chest. My husband will have to start collecting SS next yearā¦ or else he will be making a gift to Uncle Sam. Iām not looking forward to that sign up process. He hates dealing with red tape and paperwork, so there will be a lot of nagging. Not looking forward to that!
I donāt remember it being a difficult process at all. Think I did it all online!
Personally, I think thatās wise, especially if you think you might need the money in the next year or two.
We have more than 100k in a HYSA, because we know that we will need a number of things soon ā new HVAC, flooring, etc ā and just bought a new car with cash last week. We didnāt expect to buy a car for 3-5 years, but our 13yo carās transmission had other ideas, and we kept that money liquid just in case. The in case happened.
Meanwhile, I have a friend who had to sell some stock while they were low (right after Liberation Day), because she needed new struts and didnāt have the money. I couldnāt cut it that close, personally.
DH and I have this conversation at least once a month. Iām comfortable having a fairly large cushion of ready cash in our savings and checking accounts.
Are you saying he is turning 70? If so, heās past the big pain of setting up Medicare (or MA) at age 65. Thatās the step where I hear about a lot of angst from friends.
signing up is rather painless, assuming he hasnāt had any name changes and his SS name matches his earnings records.. Can be done online in <15 minutes. Or, call the 800 number first thing in the morning and be prepared to wait on hold for an hour or so. Take the opportunity to multitask while waiting for a Rep to answer.
No Medicare issues yet. He is covered by a posh creditable plan! 
He just hates filling out forms no matter how small they are. Hates it.
There are several different valid reasons for having a portion of investments in short-term, including possibly needing to spend the money soon and protection against unexpected events such as job loss or medical expenses (āemergency fundā). However, if the primary concern is protection against a stock market crash or inflation, there are other fixed income options that better serve that purpose than a HYSA.
I currently have 12.5% of my liquid net worth in short-term. This is far more than I need as an emergency fund. Instead I allocate a portion of my portfolio to pursue short-term opportunities that are not available within traditional market investments. This improves the overall return per risk level of my portfolio, as well as gives me a chance to be more active with my investments. I am currently pursuing a combination of bank/brokerage bonuses and arbitrage trading. Iām on pace to make 10-15%/year on my short-term, with what I perceive to be extremely little risk and risk that has little correlation with stock market. For example, a risk might be a brokerage fails to pay me the promotional bonus because I didnāt meet a term in the fine print.
understand. In the meantime, if he hasnāt done so, he should open an account at My Social Security, and review his earnings records to make sure that they are correct.
Thanks! I get that part. We will cross that bridge when it is time. SSA sends him a paper statement of his earnings every year, and that info matches our tax records. 
Advise him to leave lots of time to set up that online account. I set up mine in my 50s, when suggested to do so by a FA running a retirement planning class. My recollection is that some people in the class encountered some issues, took some time to work through it.
I was surprised with how easy it was to set up my SS account, especially since I had frozen it a few years ago after an issue with my SS # being compromised.
I think for most people SS account setup is pretty easy. Or maybe just a day or two delay (I seem to recall something about odd questions answered wrong, needed to try again next day). But one of our relatives encountered an awful snafu where it took months to untangle (evidently somebody else was somehow trying to use his SS#).
One advantage to setting it up before you need it is that ensures nobody else can fraudulently do so.
Did you read this article today?
Sharing gift link in case anyone else would like to read. I had not imagined the implications of āillegalā reported earnings pushing the identity theft victim into a higher tax bracket.
I doubt that a credit freeze would prevent this, and am now wondering if ID.me would? And ID.me may not even be the correct platform. I think that is the site I used to request an IRS PIN, but it has been a few years so I may have be wrong.
Regardless, as you commented, best to set up your account and keep an eye on it.
Interesting. I have a NYT subscription, but I had not seem that article. What a mess.
Yes, a mess. I find that I read different articles in the physical paper than when I look on the website. The NYT will push out articles days or a week in advance of or after the print edition. Thereās too much content to absorb.
It blows my mind that the real Kluver had no recourse when earnings that werenāt āhisā began to show up in his name. I am always thinking about how AI can be used for good, and this sort of thing seems to be the perfect use, especially since the real guy recognized issues and tried to figure out what was going on. The federal government is currently using AI, and I hope that they are concentrating on things that will help people.
I believe that qualified plans like 401(k)s provide better protection against creditors than IRAs because they are governed by ERISA. ERISA provides blanket protection against creditors (other than spouse and child support) including in bankruptcy. IRAs creditor protection under bankruptcy is capped by Federal law at $1,711,975 and for lawsuits not covered by bankruptcy, IRA protection is determined by state law.
This may to people either because the 401k is not that large or because they are not concerned about the potential for lawsuits.