Simplified, saved, but didn't invest! How should I proceed??

[bluehillsbeast]

Hello Mustachian Community,
Though this is my first post on a forum, I am familiar with the basic principles of Mustachianism.  Here is my dilemma- for the past five years I’ve managed to work and save roughly 170k.  I am debt free and live a materialistically simple, but adventurously maximal lifestyle.  Now, after discovering the principles of Mustachianism, I realize that I am missing one giant piece of the puzzle.  I have held my savings mostly in cash (roughly 10% in IRA’s).  In hindsight I am deeply regretful of missing the stock market surge in recent years, but hindsight is 20/20 right?!  So my question is how would you advise me to invest at this point?  Should I jump into the market and invest in an index fund immediately, wait for a market correction and then invest, a combination of those, or something completely different?  I am wary of the current political climate and feel like the stock market may be overvalued, but realize that feelings can get in the way of smart investing.  Thank you in advance for any advice or strategies that you have to offer!

[sokoloff]

The best time to plant a shade tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now.

Given that you're a little bit skittish, I'd figure out the asset allocation that works for you and then dollar-cost-average the money into that allocation over the subsequent N weeks (where N is 4-13). DCA means to divide the pot of money into N equal-dollar chunks and make a scheduled investment on a particular day for that amount, regardless of what's going on in the news/markets.

If it was me, I'd just pop it all in today in one chunk, but I don't have the skittish gene.


There are a lot of people in your exact shoes, only without the $170K in cash or frugal habits, so you're miles and miles ahead of the pack. Don't berate yourself (too much) for what could have been, just take the right steps now.

Set yourself a deadline for determining your asset allocation target. Make it before Memorial Day for sure, maybe even end of April.
Determine it. Write it down.
Figure out what N you want to use and put that plan in place.

[Kwill]

Welcome! It sounds like you're in the US, is that right?

Maybe a good first step while you're still sorting out what you want to do would be to start an account at Vanguard with either $3,000 or $10,000 in an index fund either as an IRA or a general account. VTSAX or VFIAX have the lowest fees, and they have a $10,000 minimum investment. VTSMX and VFINX are the same funds with slightly higher fees but only a $3,000 minimum investment. They can be converted later when you have a larger amount.

This is an old blog post but fairly easy to follow: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/18/how-to-make-money-in-the-stock-market/