What do you do with the money in your brokerage account?

[Anonymous]

Save it only for retirement? Earmark for major home renovations? How often do you pull money from it and why?

[Anonymous]

we have not pulled any because we are both still working. still in savings phase, not spending phase. won't happen until we retire.

[Anonymous]

We haven’t pulled from it but could see using it for a kid’s wedding, grad school, maybe a new car for us if needed

[Anonymous]

Originally I thought we’d need it to augment retirement but we are looking fine there. Now it is targeted towards major house projects.

[Anonymous]

honestly no clue. if we retire early, we could use it as a bridge until we take 401k/TSP withdrawals. we're now at the point where we expect our 401k/TSP/pensions to be substantially more than our current spending (like double/triple).

maybe we'll use it for house renovations or make our vacations more extravagant. maybe we should move our kid to private school.

[Anonymous]

Retirement I guess? Not sure if my pension and TSP will cover the lifestyle I want and I only put money in there that I don’t need.

[Anonymous]

Precautionary savings and charitable donations. We have more than enough saved for retirement through our retirement accounts and will receive federal government pensions and Social Security, so it's it's there in case something goes totally haywire, such as significant health problems. We have a target amount (I'd estimate 3-5 years of living expenses), and every year or two, we move the excess to a charitable account (donor advised fund).

[Anonymous]

We pulled some for a downpayment on a second home. Might pull more to supplement private high school tuition (TBD, but it's a reserve available if we want/need it).

We are in our mid-40s and retirement savings through other vehicles is in good shape.

[Anonymous]

It’s my retirement. I have more in brokerage than in retirement. When I retire I’ll have about $1M retirement but hopefully $3M brokerage. Inheritance.

[Anonymous]

Brokerage is for retirement only. For renovations, etc. we use savings accounts.

[Anonymous]

Right now it's earmarked for a downpayment on a second home. We may or may not ever buy that home.

[Anonymous]

I let it sit there mostly.
I get calls from the broker urging me to invest in this or that, and I told them I don't appreciate them trying to churn my account.

[Anonymous]

Difficult question to answer because it depends on what the money is invested in. A brokerage account is just a vehicle not a type of asset. We have stocks in our brokerage account that are for retirement. Some people keep cash in a money market fund that could be an emergency fund.

[Anonymous]

I retired early and use it for that. Pretty awesome

[Anonymous]

Pulling some to invest in a business now. This is the first time we've pulled money out. We're still 20 years from retirement, and better than on track for retirement and college, so we're taking a risk with some of this extra money.

Other things we've considered it to be earmarked for are moving to a more expensive house somewhere down the line, or just additional retirement funds.