Just keep buying.
A post by Nick Maggiulli in 2017:
> Many investors focus on the right time to buy stocks because they don’t want to buy near a peak in case of a future market crash. I understand the feeling. With the market near all time highs in early 2017, it can be tempting to hold off until there is a larger negative adjustment in prices.
> The only problem with this approach is the market could go up for a significant period of time before a correction happens.
> For example, if you search “stock market overvalued 2012” on Google you can find plenty of stories discussing how overvalued stocks were in 2012. If you had started waiting for an S&P 500 correction then, you would have missed out on the ~70+% increase in prices from 2012 through early 2017.
* https://ofdollarsanddata.com/just-keep-buying/
And what has the S&P 500 done since 2017? Continuing:
> If I still haven’t convinced you, let me tell you a story. The story is about a man with possibly the worst luck in investing history.[0][1] He made a total of 4 large stock purchases between 1973 and 2007. He bought in 1973 before a 48% decline in stocks, bought in 1987 before a 34% decline, bought in 2000 before the dot com crash, and bought in 2007 before the Great Recession.
> Despite these 4 individual purchases that totaled a little less than $200,000, how did he do? He ended up with a $980,000 profit for a 9% annualized return. What was his secret? He never sold.
> That’s right. Selling out is literally selling out your future wealth. You need to hold on to your assets as you acquire more.
> This is the purpose of capitalism (i.e. acquiring capital). The only time you should sell your investments is for rebalancing (annually/quarterly, etc.) or in retirement. Otherwise, you already know the mantra.
* [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/27/the-inspiring-story-of-the-w...
* [1] https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market...
And as Maggiulli shows, trying to buy the dip, even when you know when the dip will occur (which is impossible), gives worse results than simply putting away a little bit every month:
* https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co...
Put away a little every pay cheque, in a diversified low-fee fund (S&P 500, Total Market/Russell 3000), at a comfortable risk profile that allows you to sleep at night (0/20/40% bonds), and try not to pay attention too much about what The Market™ is doing. Most of us are investing for retirement, and if you do the above, you'll probably end up with a decent nest egg.
Save a little for the future, and enjoy the present.