Is now a good time to start investing?
For money you will not need for five or more years, the answer has almost always been yes, whatever the headlines say this week. Time in the market matters more than timing it.
Every single year, someone asks this question, and every single year the market looks either too expensive or too scary. In 2009 it was terrifying. In 2013 it had "run too far." In 2020 there was a pandemic. Anyone who waited for a comfortable moment is still waiting.
What the numbers say: over rolling ten-year periods, the US market has finished higher the vast majority of the time, and the difference between starting at a good moment and a bad one shrinks the longer you hold. Starting at the exact peak in 2007 and simply holding still worked out fine by 2017.
The honest caveat is the time horizon. If you need the money in the next year or two, for a house deposit say, the stock market is a bad place for it regardless of what it is doing today. Stocks are for money you can leave alone for at least five years.
So the practical answer: if the money is long-term, start now, put in a fixed amount monthly, and stop reading the forecasts. If the money is short-term, keep it in savings and this question does not apply.
Informational only, not financial advice. Updated September 4, 2026.
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