It’s a Brit thing, that when all’s going well, we expect the worst. Stock markets are at all-time highs, AI could potentially make life easier but we worry that the Big Crash is coming and that robots will kill us all.
It is true that what goes up will come down at some point and to some extent. And there’s speculation everywhere about when and how that will happen. So why not cash in your chips while the going’s still good?
Over the years, I’ve seen countless ‘£billions wiped off the value of your pensions’ -type headlines’. When it happens it can happen very quickly but the reverse is true, and recovery takes just one or two days. Missing the best is as, if not more harmful than missing the worst.
Unless you need the money to spend now, all the evidence of many a correction/crash/bear market is that hanging on in there and riding it out beats trying to be clever and time the market. As long as you don’t invest everything and keep enough in cash savings to cover emergencies, fun and other unexpected stuff.
So try to believe the lessons of history; which may not always repeat, but generally does, at least, rhyme.
