Looking for some advice. I recently moved all of my retirement savings into cash before the market started declining (I did not withdraw it from the IRA, just moved it out of the fund it was in). I don’t want to keep it in cash long-term, but I’m concerned about ongoing market volatility and want to place it somewhere more stable for the next few months until conditions improve.
I’m not a day trader, so I’m not looking to move money in and out frequently—I just want a low-risk option in the short term. What are my best choices for earning modest, stable returns while keeping the flexibility to reinvest when the market rebounds? My retirement is with Fidelity, if that makes any difference in available options.
You’re trying to time the market. You don’t want to call it that, but that’s exactly what you’re doing.
Here’s the thing—market volatility isn’t a glitch, it’s a feature. It’s the price of admission for long-term gains. And trying to sidestep that price, even for just a few months, is almost always a mistake. The market doesn’t care about your feelings, your intuition, or your desire for stability. It punishes hesitation and rewards patience.
You pulled your money out before the decline—congrats, that’s a rare feat. But the real challenge isn’t avoiding a downturn. It’s knowing when to get back in. And nobody, nobody, can consistently time that right. The market doesn’t send out invitations for when the recovery starts. The biggest rebounds tend to happen when things still feel bad. If you wait until the headlines say, “The market is safe again,” you’ve already missed a massive chunk of the recovery.
What’s worse, the idea of waiting for the market to “settle” or for conditions to “improve” is a mirage. There is always uncertainty. There is always volatility. There is always something to be scared about. And yet, the market, over long periods, relentlessly moves upward.
So here’s my advice: Get back in. Immediately. If you can’t stomach the volatility, dollar-cost average your way back in over the next few months. But the idea that you can “park” your money somewhere “safe” and jump back in at just the right time is a fantasy that has cost countless investors their financial future.
And if you still feel like you must do something different, then here’s the only alternative that works: Allocate your portfolio in a way that matches your actual risk tolerance, so you never feel like you have to jump in and out in the first place. That might mean more bonds, more cash, or a different mix—but it does not mean sitting in cash, waiting for a magic moment to get back in.
Because that magic moment? It’s always in the past, and by the time you recognize it, it’s gone.