Everything has a cost - however much you&#x27;re holding in cash you&#x27;re effectively burning ~3% of that each year. How quickly do bills come due? If I lost my job tomorrow I could take a payment holiday on my mortgage (since I&#x27;ve made overpayments) and pay for food and the like with my credit card (and in my specific case as a contractor I&#x27;d have what I&#x27;d earned last month, but I appreciate that doesn&#x27;t apply to everyone); I&#x27;d certainly have a few months&#x27; leeway to sell some stocks&#x2F;bonds&#x2F;whatever, and what you lose in a slump is less than what you gain during the boom period.