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Where do you want it, Fish? Under my mattress in cold hard cash?

Anyone that's under age 40 that has less than 60% of their retirement/savings/long term money not in the stock market is an idiot, IMO. Unless you're within 5-8 years of retirement, THE STOCK MARKET IS NOT A SHORT TERM/TIMING GAME.


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It certainly isn't for those who can't time the market. But that's like saying that everyone who plays poker is an idiot because on average, playing poker is a losing proposition.


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I'm in my 20s and have 75% of my money in the market. The sky is not falling. This has happened millions of times over the last 80 years, and it has been consistently proven time and time again that the people who left their money in through fluctuations come out on top on almost any long term time period you can quote (any 10 year period, any 20 year period, etc).


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Nikkei-225 1987-2007, DJIA 1929-1954, 1966-1982. And those were *nominal* declines, which is insanely awful over a stretch that long. You'd note that on an inflation-adjusted basis, DJIA had an unbelievably awful stretch from 1929 to 1982 as well. It merely doubled from the high in 1929 to the low in 1982 over the course of 53 years, far lagging behind inflation.