Other commenters weigh in with excellent counters. However, the OP (and I) didn&#x27;t split between equities and cash.<p>It would have been very rare for one to have -- while trying to be prudent -- constructed a portfolio of assets across checking accounts, equities, bonds, and primary residence that saw anything like a 50% loss from peak to 2008-crisis trough.<p>Note that the checking account loss was 0%; bonds did not perform as badly as equities; and in the vast majority of the US, residential RE did not fall 50%. Also note that if one did not choose the absolute generational bottom to liquidate the entire portfolio, the actual losses would have been lesser still. In other words, allocating across a diverse set of assets would have protected from the worst of the downside (while letting you participate in the historic run in equities since).<p>Irrational fear of volatility is going to have a lot of people retiring much later than they would like, with less money than they would like.