When you drink Chivas Regal or Johnnie Walker whiskey, do you know they are blended whiskey? Blended whiskey is the product of mixing one or more higher-quality straight or single malt whiskies with lighter spirits and water. And no, the best whiskey is not always the "pure" single malt kind. Wink. Most people only consider black or white choices. Left or right? Yes or no? When it comes to investing, some can be very polemic - like "cash is rotting in the bank". See below chart for something interesting: Was it what you expected? Can you figure out why most veteran retail investors/bloggers have some kind of opportunity fund war chest? And no, emergency fund is separate from opportunity fund. They serve 2 different purposes. This is nothing new to most fundamental investors, especially if you are business financed trained. If fundamental investors can enjoy reading boring Company Annual Reports, they can pretty much sit down and do their own reading and research into Portfolio Management. How cash and bonds in a portfolio can reduce the volatility by quite a bit. What if you don't like reading and studying (that's why you're not fundamental investor)? Well, there are a few options: 1) Talk to a financial adviser you trust - those got CFA behind their names OK? But whether they want to charge you a fee or do it for free (but sell you stuffs) you decide. 2) Buy your favourite finance blogger coffee and see if he/she can help answer your question. There's a bleeding heart that spoils market by giving "advice" for free. If you have to ask "who?" you are not part of his/her circle. It's always good manners to have a relationship first before asking something for free. Wink. 3) Crash got sound. Just like drinking coffee, some don't add sugar, some add 4 cubes of sugar. You'll find out how many cubes of sugars that's right for you by trying it out yourself. No plan, no knowledge. Just do first; figure it out later through stumbling along. P.S.  This works whether you are planning for your retirement, journey towards financial freedom, investing for your child's uni fund, or saving towards that deposit for your dream private property.

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Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)