Should I move my cash pile into investments — or de-risk before retiring?
Moving money between cash and investments changes nothing about how much you have on the day you move it. What it changes is the assumed return on that money from then on, and how much of it you could reach at short notice — which pull in opposite directions as the date approaches.
What the move actually changes
- The amount moved and the month you move it, in one direction or the other.
- How soon that particular money is needed, in months rather than in principle.
- The reserve you want to keep reachable regardless of what the markets do.
- The return you assume on each side of the move, before it and after it.
- Fees, spread or tax you expect on the transfer, and the years the plan still runs.
One transfer, everything else fixed
Compare a copy with the transfer against one without it, over the same horizon and with the same contributions. Total wealth is identical in the month of the move — only the allocation and the assumed return differ afterwards, so any divergence you see is the return assumption playing out over the remaining years.
Worth saying plainly: on a single smooth path, moving to cash almost always looks worse, because the thing it protects against never appears. The comparison shows the cost of the move, not its benefit. Treat it as one variant among several, and decide the trade-off with your eyes open rather than from the chart.
Questions worth testing
- How much of this money is needed within the next five years?
- What does the move cost over the remaining years at the returns you assumed?
- How much stays reachable without selling anything at a bad moment?
- Would a partial move, or the same move in a different month, read differently?
How to read the result
The plan applies the returns you assume along one smooth path, so it cannot show the falls a shift towards cash is meant to avoid, nor the recoveries that follow them. Worthifi does not recommend a glidepath, does not time markets and applies no tax or fee to a transfer unless you enter it. This is a planning illustration, not investment or tax advice.
How it works in the app
An investment transfer moves a lump sum you already hold from one place to another in a single month — cash reserve into investments to put it to work, or investments back to cash to de-risk before you stop working. It moves balances you hold now, not your future monthly contributions.
- Open Investments → Edit portfolio and tap “Move money between investments”.
- Choose the “From” and “To” places and the amount, and pick the month.
- Check the change in your blended return and net-worth path.
Model this yourself