What is the Sustenance rung?

Sustenance is the second rung: runway if income stops, so you never sell your investments at a loss to eat. Its target is your full monthly spending times twelve times a number of years, stacked on top of Survival. While Survival covers a sudden shock, Sustenance covers a long one — a year or two without income, or a market fall you would rather wait out.

How the number of years is chosen

Until you move the slider, the years come from your income stability index, which suggests between 1.5 and 3 years: steadier, more spread-out income suggests less, a single variable income suggests more. The card’s guidance states the figure, says whether it is the suggestion or your own choice, and adds that two to two and a half years is typical. The value is marked suggested until then, and How that was worked out opens the income reading behind it. The slider runs from 1 year to 5 years in tenths of a year; once you move it, your figure is used from then on.

What can fill it

• Cash and deposits, in full.
• Bonds and debt funds, in full.
• Gold, up to four fifths of each holding.
• Not equities, statutory schemes, property or anything filed as other — selling those in a downturn is exactly what this rung exists to prevent.

If your total wealth covers the runway but too little of it is in something Sustenance can use, the card says The money is there. Only … of it is in something this rung can use., and the word over the rung is made worse to match. What stands out may add Some of this is a restructuring, not a shortfall, naming how much sits in the wrong place. Instrument fit explains the reading.