I am in my late 30s, and I thought about investing in early 2020 by putting in a very small amount. Then COVID happened and the market crashed. I thought the market would fall further, so I waited but then it suddenly rose. I kept waiting for it to fall again, but it continued rising.
The same thing happened in 2022. In March 2026, I thought the war would cause the market to fall further, but to my surprise, it increased.
I feel embarrassed about my mistake and my lack of knowledge at this age. I am sitting on cash while inflation is eroding its value, and I feel clueless about how to begin. I feel like the opportunity is gone forever now that the market is so high.
I tracked the market all through March 2026 but kept waiting for it to fall further and didn’t invest a penny. I feel foolish for my age, as I have spent hours tracking the market over the past six years but have invested only $1,000.
Kept waiting for market to fall and now feeling stuck
byu/Rough_Champion6103 inStockMarket
Posted by Rough_Champion6103
10 Comments
You will feel the same in 5 years about 2026….put the money in there and forget it…its mathematically impossible to time the market. Absolutely no one can do it…
Time in the market is much more important than timing the market. Just buy VTI / VOO whenever you have some money and call it a day.
You could maybe start by laddering CDs to get more comfortable with investing at all?
What convinced you not to invest after trumps “liberation day”? I was like you and waited since jan this year and got in at that dip.
If you don’t get in now, you’re gonna miss the next 50% run
I think picking target allocations and living with it is best. One issue with holding too much cash is that your return will be less than inflation. Pick to something somewhat auto and ride it.
I read somewhere a long time ago that you just invest when you can and it will all kind of average out (and go up on average) and it’s worked very well for me. I never try to time markets I invest when I have money to invest. I’ve kept putting money in during all the examples you mention even though I also thought it would go down.
Why don’t you invest in a managed account like a robo advisor just to get money out there? Let the professionals worry about the market for you (or the robots I guess) this also let’s you set a risk tolerance if you really think a recession is coming
Best of luck
Sounds like OP would panic sell at the slightest drop even if they did invest anyway.
Just buy dude, quit trying to time it and just consistently buy every X amount of time
Markets will only correct after market makers have squeezed every penny from those betting against it.
Any significant correction will take a major catalyst. My watch list is:
1) Trump leaves office – burning everything down behind him.
2) Consumer spending declines and takes corporate earnings with it – high gas prices is prime catalyst.
3) Another country falters and starts a domino affect – Italian debt is a prime candidate.
4) Oil shock to US markets – Iranian terrorist attack or hurricane in the gulf.
5) Major crypto crash – quantum computing and/or AI breaking blockchain.
No one knows what or when will trigger it.