Key insights
- A novice investor expresses concern about a potential market downturn following a geopolitical threat after investing a lump sum. The investor's portfolio is diversified across VOO, small-cap, international stocks/bonds, and tech ETFs. The investor ultimately decides to stay invested and implement a dollar-cost averaging strategy, highlighting the risks of impulsive market timing based on news headlines.
People, I am not a finance guy. I work in cyber security. I invest casually just to keep money out of my checking account. I said “hey the market is down I should just throw my bonus money into the market” it’s like 70% split between mixed VOO, small company stocks, and international stocks and bonds, and 30% into tech ETFs like XLK.
Then today I see some news that Donny T is threatening civilization obliteration at 8pm sharp. Am I going to take like a massive hit here, to the point I should pull this out of the market? This isn’t like my buffer money or emergency account it’s just spare money we had sitting. I still have like 6-9 months emergency sitting in cash.
Do I just let it ride? Did I monumentally fuck up? Did everyone else just stop putting money in the market right now because of this or is this somehow possibly an opportunity because it’s down and maybe I win from this in the long term?
Again, I am new to this - try not to beat me up too bad.
Edit: hey it went up!
Edit: it went back down.
EDIT: the constructive bullying has talked me off the ledge. I’m leaving it in, I set a reoccurring for $1000/week on it. Didn’t realize the difference between trading/investing. Just going to forget it exists for a few years. Sorry for all the noise.