For Long-Term Investors, the Best Time to Buy Is Now Sitting and waiting for an ideal moment to invest means you risk missing out on years of stock market wealth generation. This game is clearly rigged in favor of the long-term investor. Here are three data points that prove the biggest risk for the long term is nonparticipation... First off, since 1950, the range of returns from the S&P 500 for any one-year period has been from up 47% to down 39%. In other words, the market is volatile over a one-year time horizon. Second, for any five-year period since 1950, the range of annualized returns for the S&P 500 is up 28% to down 3%. That means there is little chance of being down, even over the worst possible five-year stretch. Finally, dating back to 1950, there has not been a single instance in which the market has been down over a 20-year period. Not even close. In fact, the range of annualized returns for every 20-year time frame since 1950 is up 17% to up 6%. That means since 1950, there has never been a 20-year period when investors did not make at least 6% per year in the stock market. What more can you want than making 6% per year your worst-case scenario?! The bottom line for anyone who wants to generate wealth over the long term is this... Time in the market is more important than timing the market. That doesn't mean an investor should blindly buy stocks. Instead, it means that investors should selectively add exposure to the market. I do it by finding the best value and avoiding dangerously expensive sectors of the market. The areas to avoid include profitless electric vehicle manufacturers, overvalued videoconferencing companies, outrageously overpriced meme stocks and joke cryptocurrencies. But I also believe there are some great opportunities to be had. And to feed my inner contrarian, I look for unloved, undervalued stocks with solid fundamentals and a history of rewarding shareholders. I've recently identified multistate operators of cannabis, commodity producers and utilities as promising pitches. There are always opportunities and risks in every market environment. The more we focus on the former and avoid the latter, the better we will do. The key is to stay invested for the long term. Good investing, Jody |