The Struggle Is Real: Keep Your Money In Cash Or Stocks?

Over the past week or two, The Juice has riffed bullish on stocks. 

It doesn’t matter who wins the election or if AI creeps you out, but tech stocks and — importantly — a broader selection of tickers will lead the extension of this upward-trending market we have been lucky enough to live through. 

However, because The Juice believes the old Bruce Springsteen line — nobody wins unless everybody wins — we talk a fair bit about the inequalities that exist in our society. It’s easy to say: Well, they’re not impacting me or affecting the stock market. But, frankly, that’s not the type of nation we want to live in. 

We weren’t founded on every man, woman and child for themself. We subscribe to all for one and one for all. 

Beyond this, there is something to the slow creep of capitalism. It appears as if we exist in late-stage capitalism, a point in time where the inequities of society couldn’t be more clear. Where the 1% lives in a world all their own. Where the (shrinking) middle class and upper middle class simultaneously lament the ultrarich, but don’t have a good handle on the true plight of the poor.  

It’s at this point that something’s gotta give. What’s next? We don’t know, but we hope for a more egalitarian society.

In any event, that’s just the big picture context of why The Juice cares and talks about this stuff. We’re investors. We like to make money. But we’re also living in a society (if you caught the subtle George Costanza reference there, good on you!). 

On the ground, it’s so easy to say just put $50 into an index fund every week or every month and, in 40 years, you’ll be well into the six figures. 

Of course, there are people who don’t have $50 to spare every week or every month. 

There are others who technically have the extra dough, but spend what they make in a way that leaves them living paycheck to paycheck, which is actually living hand to mouth:

… living paycheck to paycheck can be a savings strategy for people with the means to live hand to mouth. 

If you have a six-figure salary, retirement fund and own a home, particularly with some equity, or rent a relatively expensive apartment, you absolutely might be house rich and cash poor. However, we’re certain that quite a few high earners in this type of situation end up with little to nothing left over at the end of the month because of needlessly high costs of living and excessive discretionary spending. 

When you’re comfortable, it’s easy to spend freely like this.

So, yeah, if you make $5,000 a month and absolutely have to spend $4,500 to pay necessities and do things like eat out and have fun within reason, you could commit that $500 a month to investments. This is a saving/investing strategy of living paycheck to paycheck because each paycheck you see is accounted for with nothing left over. But, you’re investing 10% of it, so that’s good. 

We’re talking about this person. Or maybe the person who does this on $3,000 of earnings and $300 of savings each month. Not the person who has a needlessly high cost of living. They’re the ones who could be investing, having a good life and not thinking twice — financially — about any of it. 

This said, the thing you rarely see discussed in the financial media and the personal finance blogs is cash security. The purely psychological need to have cash at the ready, in a bank account. Even if you could liquidate stocks in 24-48 hours, you don’t care. You want immediate access to that money. Without it, you experience anxiety. 

Maybe you can relate to this? If so, use the feedback link at the bottom of the page to send The Juice your thoughts. 

There’s also an offshoot to this. You see your investment balance building and you fear that you’re putting that money — your gains — at risk. So you sell and put that money in a bank account. Or you experienced some volatility in the market or had an unexpected expense come up, so you freak out, sell and go to cash. 

We’re not crazy. We know more than a few people who feel this way. 

It’s easier to feel this way when you’re earning 5% in a savings account. Sure, it’s not Nvidia (NVDA) money, but it’s better than 1%. It’s much more difficult to justify it and financially damaging in the long-run when your cash not only generates very little return, but loses its purchasing power over time. The only real way to combat this is to be in stocks over the long haul. 

The Bottom Line: Tech stocks, in particular, have crushed it. However, if you look around, it’s clear that not everybody benefited. And it’s not simply because they’re poor and have no money to invest. 

There are loads of reasons why people don’t invest in the stock market. Apathy. Lack of knowledge. A disdain for capitalism. You name it. But, weirdly, some people stay on the sidelines and perpetually in cash, out of fear. In order to preserve a sense of cash security that, to them, is more important than anything. When, in reality, this approach is probably doing more financial harm than good. 

Do you know anyone who says, “I prefer to keep my money under my mattress?”

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