| Putting away a little every month will get you better returns than having cash on the sidelines waiting for the dip, even if you know when the dip will happen ahead of time: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co... Of course you don't know when the dip is going to come. So you have to pull out some time before (close to) the exact day that things start tanking. And then you have to get in on the exact day of the bottom, because the 'best days' for returns are often soon after the 'worst' days. And if you miss just a handful of the best days, your returns tank: * https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2019/02/08/miss-the-worst-... * https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/04/11/what-happens-when-... * https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/this-chart-shows-why-investo... Of course once people are (usually completely) out of the market, they have a hard time jumping back in psychologically, and there's an opportunity cost to sitting on the sidelines: * https://ofdollarsanddata.com/risking-fast-and-slow/ At the end of the day, even if you only invest at the worst possible moment, you'll still probably do just fine if you stick with things: * https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market... |