It's hard to look at the chart below and not gets scared. In fact, its hard not to log into my broker account and sell everything, or at least put a stop loss on each stock.
But the fact is that I could have made that same statement for the last one or two years, and been wrong every time. Look how much higher the stock market has gone since it passed its all time high which was close to the top of those first two mountains on the chart.
There is no doubt that we are uncharted waters as the market has gone almost straight up since 2009. The difficult part for me has been putting money into stocks along the way as I keep looking at charts like this one and scaring myself into non-action. I keep waiting for a meaningful pullback and the most we can get is 3% to 5% which hardly counts.
I feel like a dummy as I have had too much money on the sidelines, determined not to get hurt too badly if another crash comes along. And in my conservatism, I have cost myself so much money I don't want to think about it. The danger is that I, and other investors, will throw in the towel and start buying again as we try to play catch up. And THAT will be when the market crashes.
This goes to show that I just can't time the market and when I try, I usually fail. I'm pretty sure you are no different. The best way to go about investing your money is to put it into stocks/the market on a consistent basis and for the long haul whenever possible. That way you buy in at the highs, lows, and in between.
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