<prompt> Human: Quick background: 26, stable careerincome business owner, good savings, yearly IRA contributions all set. Married, no debts except mortgage which we are shooting to pay off in the next 18 months completely.My wife and I have set aside a chunk of money in a savings account in preparation to invest. We want to do some broad index funds with minimal expense ratios. Maybe 60 into a full-market kind of thing, 15 specific sector, 15 foreign, 10 bonds. Now for the last year or so things have been going up consistently, and Ive read advice that now is NOT a good time to start buying since things are probably going to correct soon.But had I STARTED investing a year ago, I would have seen good returns by now. So the question is, do I try to time the market and wait for some kind of correction mini recession? Or do I start putting in 1-2k every month, set it, and forget it?  <response>: Dont try to time the market. If youre going to invest, then invest. From the FAQ: Vanguard found that lump sum investing LSI, i.e. investing all of your available funds immediately, outperformed a DCA strategy based on historical performance PDF Since the long-term historical trend of equities has been up, this makes sense intuitively as well - lump sum investors are compensated for taking on the equity risk premium high risk, high reward sooner rather than later. 