If you hold "unnecessary" cash that you never need that really hurts your portfolio performance as you earn close to 0% from the cash at this time. Wrong type of "cash" Adam! :) 4% real (after inflation) since 1972 https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-allocation?s=y&portfolio3=Custom&portfolio2=Custom&portfolio1=Custom&annualOperation=0&TotalStockMarket1=12.5&initialAmount=10000&endYear=2015&mode=2&inflationAdjusted=true&annualAdjustment=0&startYear=1972&Gold1=12.5&rebalanceType=1&TwoYearTBills1=37.5&annualPercentage=0.0&LongTermBond1=37.5 4% real since January 2000 https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-allocation?s=y&portfolio3=Custom&portfolio2=Custom&portfolio1=Custom&annualOperation=0&TotalStockMarket1=12.5&initialAmount=10000&endYear=2015&mode=2&inflationAdjusted=true&annualAdjustment=0&startYear=2000&Gold1=12.5&rebalanceType=1&TwoYearTBills1=37.5&annualPercentage=0.0&LongTermBond1=37.5 3.6% real since January 2008 https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-asset-class-allocation?s=y&portfolio3=Custom&portfolio2=Custom&portfolio1=Custom&annualOperation=0&TotalStockMarket1=12.5&initialAmount=10000&endYear=2015&mode=2&inflationAdjusted=true&annualAdjustment=0&startYear=2008&Gold1=12.5&rebalanceType=1&TwoYearTBills1=37.5&annualPercentage=0.0&LongTermBond1=37.5