Whether to continue my Sharebuilder automatic investment program

Since I am starting to live on savings now and may be for a few more months, the question arises of whether I should continue or suspend my monthly Sharebuilder automatic investment program in Microsoft stock. In the past, this was part of my "savings" since I was converting income from work into an investment, but now any "investment" in this plan would be simply a transfer from cash savings to stock, so it wold be more of an asset allocation shift than a savings plan. Granted, I still feel comfortable investing in Microsoft stock going forward, but I am also reluctant to put any additional downwards pressure on my cash reserves.

I need to decide by next Monday whether to suspend the plan before it makes the next automatic investment next Tuesday.

I am seriously leaning towards suspending the automatic investment plan since paying closer attention to preserving my cash reserves feels like a top priority.

On the other hand, if I get new work within a few months, the total dollar amount of the automatic investment plan will still be fairly small.

I may decide to continue the plan tentatively for another two months and decide in three months whether my work prospects are imminent or not. That will probably be my default plan.

Or, who knows, maybe I will have some new work lined up by the end of this week. You never know.

-- Jack Krupansky