If you’re even vaguely interested in money, you’ve seen the headlines:
“DOW CLOSES AT ALL-TIME HIGH!”
“S&P 500 HITS ANOTHER RECORD!”
“NASDAQ SOARS TO NEW HEIGHTS!”
They’re designed to grab your attention—and, if you’re like most people, to make you wonder if now is the worst possible time to invest. “Wait, isn’t it dangerous to buy at the top? What if it all comes crashing down tomorrow?”
It’s a logical fear. Nobody wants to be the sucker who bought in right before the next big drop.
But here’s what those scary-sounding headlines don’t tell you:
The stock market hits record highs all the time. That’s literally what it’s designed to do.
Record Highs Are the Norm, Not the Exception
Look at any long-term chart of the total stock market or the S&P 500. What do you see? A jagged line, sure, but one that—despite some gut-wrenching drops—climbs higher and higher over time.
That’s not magic. It’s a simple result of economic growth, innovation, and the fact that companies, on the whole, become more valuable as they grow profits, invent things, and serve more customers. The market isn’t a casino; it’s a scoreboard of real businesses solving real problems (and sometimes, real businesses causing real headaches, but that’s another article).
Here’s a wild stat:
If you only invested in the stock market when it was at an all-time high, you’d still have made a ton of money over the years.
Don’t believe it? According to Fidelity and Vanguard, the average return for someone who invested only on record high days is nearly identical to someone who invested at random intervals.
Why You Shouldn’t Wait for a “Dip”
“Should I wait for a pullback?”
“Isn’t it risky to invest at the top?”
Here’s the truth:
You can’t time the market.
Nobody—seriously, nobody—knows what will happen next. Not your favorite finance influencer, not your brother-in-law with the fancy MBA, not the guy on TV who yells a lot. Trying to wait for a dip usually means you’ll just wait…and wait…and wait—while the market keeps marching up.
Meanwhile, your money is sitting on the sidelines, missing out on the growth.
The Total Market ETF: Your Friend, No Matter the Headline
When you invest in a total market ETF (like VTI, ITOT, or SCHB), you’re buying a tiny slice of every major U.S. company. Big tech, old-school manufacturers, healthcare, banks, you name it.
This is the easiest, lowest-stress way to build wealth over time.
You don’t have to pick winners. You don’t have to watch CNBC. You don’t have to freak out every time the market drops 2% because of some new headline.
All you have to do is keep buying—regularly, automatically, through thick and thin. That’s it.
Here’s the Bottom Line
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The market will set new records in the future.
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There will also be drops, panics, corrections, and bear markets.
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Over the long run, the market has always recovered and moved higher.
So the next time you see a headline blaring about a new record, just remember:
It’s normal. It’s expected.
And it has nothing to do with whether now is a “good” time to invest.
The best time to start investing was yesterday. The second-best time is today.
Don’t let the headlines scare you off.