Novice question

Can't time the market. Dollar cost average for the win.

If you had invested a lump sum in an S&P index fund in February 2020, you would also be investing at a record high. Not only that, but the market tanked within a month due to COVID shedding 20% in value.

With no additional investment or market timing, by December 2020 you would be up 10%. By December 2024 you would be up 81%.

If you look back at the chart long enough, there is a steady history of the S&P 500 reaching and exceeding record highs (with occasional bumps in the road). If you have doubts about the market continuing on this trend over the long term, then your concern goes beyond market timing.

Thanks guys. I will do that today

Appreciate the feedback. It’s a “hold and forget about it but break in case of emergency fund”.

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I just hate dumping money when a fund is at an all time high

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Is your expectation that it will never go higher? I buy ETFs regularly whether they are higher or lower. It's a long game.

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It’s a “hold and forget about it but break in case of emergency fund”.

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No. You need a separate emergency fund or you'll be paying capital gains when you have to break that piggy bank open.

LINK

This is a recent article on this subject. If you search that site for "buy the unloved" you can find articles like this going ten years back. There's definitely something to it, but I've never found any info in them that I've actually put to use.

We have experienced a narrow advance of few mega cap growth names that have accounted for the majority of market gains for several years. If you buy an S&P 500 index funds, you will be putting about 1/3 of your money into those overvalued stocks. As people above suggested, that's a cycle that repeats over and over in the market across decades and it is still hard to beat an index fund.

If you want to keep it simple, you could buy an index fund that tracks something different than the S&P. There are small cap, mid cap, smid cap, value and growth indexes then there are additional index funds based on non-US stocks. If you were to go value or smaller cap you'd be away from the mega cap issue I mentioned, but if you really are a fire and forget kind of guy, which is not a bad thing, you probably won't ever be able to tell the difference. Don't take that as an insult, it isn't. Many, many people are successful in investing because they took a simple approach and stuck with it.

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same. any and all advice on what to do is welcome

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coming from an idiot, read the sticky at the top.


based on that, i opened an IRA, funded it from my bank and then researched some underperforming stocks.

bought some dollar stocks, watched them for a few days. some were out of humor (Buzzfeed) some were personal interests (security and technology.) I watched for a bit and then after i made a bit of money, i turned it around and sold a few after making modest profit and put those gains into a low buy in mutual fund. Now that just sits.

Start small and diversify so you don't feel like an idiot when one or two has a bad day. Watching it on a microlevel can help you learn not to freak out and what the long game is. After 2 days of getting excited and sad about gaining and losing $2-3, it helped me to not buy and sell on impulse. Seeing my mutual fund gain about 2% while not having the ups and downs made it make more sense to make that the more steady investment.

I'll start adding in larger amounts in the future. I'll keep some in individual stocks and most into mutual funds.

Also, i'm an idiot and new. Take people's advice who have way more posts than I do on this board.

“Time in the market is better than timing the market” is the old saying.

Time in market is a strong indicator for financial independence