Time in the Market Beat My Fear of Timing It

Everyone struggles with buying an index fund at the right moment. Personally, I struggled with this for years. I bought my first ETF in 2015. What changed for me was realizing that investing is a long-term game. As soon as that clicked, I understood that overcoming the fear of buying too high wasn’t that hard — I was just approaching it the wrong way.

Here’s what I should have done instead:

Choose a random date and buy

I was afraid of buying into the market at too high a price and kept trying to time the market. But over the last 10 years, I learned that investing is about time in the market rather than timing the market.

I finally pulled the trigger and bought my first ETF.

As it turned out, I bought at a market high, and my investment was negative for more than two years. My biggest fear came true.

I knew this was a long-term plan and that I wouldn’t touch it for at least five years. Year after year, it started to grow, and looking back after 10 years, it has delivered a massive gain.

I wrote an investing guide explaining how I invest: https://gherget.com/investing-guide