Need some advice from my financially-savvy fish friends.

Have managed to save about $20k over the past few years and want to know best to invest it. I’m risk averse and would like to throw it all in an S&P 500 index fund, but I’ve been waiting for a market correction.

I know the adage is the “time in the market is better than timing the market,” but I’m not sure if that applies to these record highs we’re saying. Should I wait, or not delay at all? Thank you!

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If you’re concerned about buying at the peak you can dollar cost average (DCA) in. Buy some at regular intervals instead of dumping in everything at once

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Don't quote me, but the market spends like 90% of its time within 5% of its record high. Time>timing

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Put it in now and yes, average down your costs. Maybe put it in slowly and over time?

look - unless you're putting it into fixed deposits I still don't think you're generating the average returns you'll get in the S&P or Dow Jones (much less Nasdaq) indices. Meanwhile, inflation.

Yes, dollar cost average your way into an ETF.

Basically, set up a brokerage account and buy like 1 share per day of VTI. Trades are $0 commission these days, which makes strategies like this possible.

This. And when the market is down, buy more on those days.

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I’m a big fan of my betterment account. Let’s you specify timing of when you need to take money out + set specific sub goals. The tax loss harvesting feature is also very good

Unfortunately, B4 are prohibited from using robo advisors due to audit requirements. :_( agreed though that betterment or similar products are great for passive investors that lack restrictions.

Do you have an emergency fund - at least three months of living expenses in case you lose your job or have a financial hardship? If not, keep the $20k in high yield savings for that purpose. Start investing future savings in the market gradually (DCA).

For a conventional portfolio , you can do a mix of total market + bond + international market. I forget the symbol for these funds at vanguard but probably vti, bnd , and something else. 80% total market and remainder a mix of bonds and international. Then just rebalance quarterly. If you Google that folio you should find the book related to it. That said, if the 20k is not an emergency fund, I would suggest you use it to buy one or two shares of spy or similar etf per week. Meanwhile, try doing some DD and actually investing on 3k of it to build comfort and learn the market. 20k is replaceable so better to start learning and building confidence now rather than when you are bored and 60 with $$$$

Book recs for people interested in trading:

1. Intelligent Investor - Graham
2. The smartest investment book you'll ever read - solin (has that basic folio... I have mixed feelings about the other content)
3. Reminisvences of a stock operator -lefevres
4. Laws of trading - lebron ( find people like this and Aaron Brown who actually have done the work and found success instead of tiktokkers who may lie about their success and hide failures)
5. Snowball. - ready for 45+hrs of buffet biography?
6. Taleb's stuff.

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