Household Cash Allocation
This measures the share of US household financial assets held in cash and near-cash — currency, checkable and time/savings deposits, and money market fund shares — divided by total household financial assets. Drawn from the Federal Reserve's quarterly Z.1 Financial Accounts (the household-and-nonprofit sector, the broadest read on retail balance sheets), it is the direct complement to household equity allocation: the "cash on the sidelines" or dry-powder gauge. The long-run median since 1993 is about 16%.
Cash share of assets
Next release: Dec 10, 2026
Latest reading
As of Q2 2026, Cash Allocation (Cash share of assets) stands at 13.2% — down from 14.5% the prior reading, 6.1 pp below the Q1 2009 record of 19.3%. It works as a contrarian, long-horizon sentiment gauge, and it tends to move inversely to stocks-as-a-share-of-wealth. Unusually low cash allocations reflect crowd risk-appetite and have clustered near major tops — the series bottomed at 12.9% at the 1999-2000 dot-com peak, its lowest on record. High allocations mark fear and a flight to safety: it spiked to 19.3% in early 2009 at the financial-crisis lows. Today it sits near the low end of its range, a risk-on, low-dry-powder reading. Watch the 4-quarter average for the underlying trend rather than quarterly noise. Series history runs from 1993 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-09-16 · Open ↓Close ↑
Full history
Methodology & data
Cash Allocation is sourced from Fed via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (Federal Reserve Z.1 via FRED (DABSHNO ÷ TFAABSHNO), quarterly). We pull the complete history, chart it on a quarterly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-09-16. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Household Cash Allocation?
This measures the share of US household financial assets held in cash and near-cash — currency, checkable and time/savings deposits, and money market fund shares — divided by total household financial assets. Drawn from the Federal Reserve's quarterly Z.1 Financial Accounts (the household-and-nonprofit sector, the broadest read on retail balance sheets), it is the direct complement to household equity allocation: the "cash on the sidelines" or dry-powder gauge. The long-run median since 1993 is about 16%.
How do you read Cash Allocation?
It works as a contrarian, long-horizon sentiment gauge, and it tends to move inversely to stocks-as-a-share-of-wealth. Unusually low cash allocations reflect crowd risk-appetite and have clustered near major tops — the series bottomed at 12.9% at the 1999-2000 dot-com peak, its lowest on record. High allocations mark fear and a flight to safety: it spiked to 19.3% in early 2009 at the financial-crisis lows. Today it sits near the low end of its range, a risk-on, low-dry-powder reading. Watch the 4-quarter average for the underlying trend rather than quarterly noise.
Where does the Cash Allocation data come from?
Federal Reserve Z.1 via FRED (DABSHNO ÷ TFAABSHNO), quarterly. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/household-cash-allocation.csv.
How often is Cash Allocation updated?
Cash Allocation is a quarterly series from Fed, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
Cash share of assets
Next release: Dec 10, 2026