<prompt> Human: So I am a 21 y.o. with 50k cash. I would like to invest atleast 30-35k however I am fearful of the current status of the stock market. While I know timing the market is a bad idea, I feel as though I have just missed out on one of the longest and largest growths of the U.S. stock market. Id prefer not to get in on the tail end of it when it will normalize, even crash. Please, before just saying NEVER TIME THE MARKET, please put yourself in my shoes as a 21 year old who doesnt really know what he will need that money for in the near future. Thats 50k cash that, if the market were to crash, could lose half its value. The price of my market avoidance is the measly I get from a high-yield savings account.  <response>: Heres a story about Bob, the worlds worst market timer. You could also read JL Collins Stick Series it talks about what youre going through in the first, fourth, and 18th chaptersEssentially, if youre going to invest in stocks you need to have a long runway and youve got to mentally toughen up and not sell into a decline. Its easy to say. Its really hard to do if youve never faced a 50 loss before. On the bright side you are talking about a relatively small amount of money. Youre going to want some experience dealing with market declines before you have 500,000 or a million dollars worth of exposure. 