I think the safer your job/situation is, and the less debt you have, the less you need to protect your assets in case a downturn happens. I have a government job in France, which is basically the safest situation on Earth, I'm supposed to have a pension when I retire, and even if my salary was divided by 2 I could still pay off my debt (mortgage), so I'm all in on stocks and couldn't care less about bear markets. But if I lived in the US, with a very unstable job, in a small company, no pension, no national health insurance system, I'd load on cash and bonds like crazy (I mean, even during bull markets) and learn how to live frugally in the case of a recession.