What the Experts Are Saying About Investing In This Stock Market

S&P 500 Returns over the past decade (source Yahoo Finance)

The Bear is Here. Invest Now, or Wait?

This is something I only get to write once every 10 years or so. It’s simple, and compelling, and good news if this bear market has gotten you down.

As you can tell by the chart above, the stock market has taken a huge hit recently. And because of the low levels some great companies have fallen to:

I think we’re facing what could be -- for many of you – potentially the best investing opportunity in your lifetime.

And I’m not alone….

• Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives told CNBC that it’s a “generational buying opportunity” for the right stocks. 
• Billionaire investor Ron Baron said in a CNBC interview that it’s a “huge, monstrous opportunity.” 
• Longtime columnist and author Mark Hulbert said in Marketwatch that “fortunes may be made by those that are dispassionate and selectively buy today.”

Hulbert sums up the reasons why so many smart investors are so excited: Stocks have returned an average of 22.7% in the year after entering a bear market (which we recently did). If you believe the market will eventually go back up and surpass its highs (as it’s done after every bear market in history… again, study the chart above) “purchases made now will show a bigger profit, and sooner, than the market itself.”

Another way to look at it is the S&P 500 has gained over 400% since the bottom of the financial crisis bear market of 2008 - 2009.

Don’t regret missing out 
I know it can be disheartening to experience a bear market like this, and tell yourself “I’ll just wait until stocks are going back up to invest.” But it simply doesn’t work that way (or everyone would do it). You simply cannot tell the everyday zigs and zags from “we’ve hit bottom and stocks are going back up for good.” People who try to time things like this usually end up missing the big gains they were hoping to get in the first place.

Neither I, nor the people I just mentioned, are saying this is the exact bottom of the bear market. The truth is, no one knows for certain where the market will go in the short term. It’s futile to try to time the bottom.

But I am a huge believer in the long-term direction of our country, and of this stock market, and of the kind of wealth ordinary people like us can amass when investing the right way.

Because of this, the reason for this article today is to urge you to get into the market with a long-term strategy… and not look back and kick yourself for the gains you missed out on.

Where to invest? 
If you want to know where to invest right now, adding regularly to an S&P 500 or total market index fund is a good place to start. But I’d recommend taking a strong look at The Motley Fool’s flagship investing service, Stock Advisor, whose recommendations have nearly tripled the returns of the S&P 500 since inception 20 years ago (622% average returns vs the S&P’s 123%). That was, coincidentally, near the 2002 bottom of the bear market that was fueled by the dot-com crash. 

In short, the S&P 500 has done very well in both the mid- and long-term after entering a bear market, and Stock Advisor has performed even better.

Those returns include winners like:

• Amazon.com  + 23,283%
• Booking Holdings +14,343%
• Tesla +8,379%
• Netflix + 29,653%

Returns like these show the power of long-term investing through bear market, bull market, and everything in between.

To learn more about the Stock Advisor team’s 10 best stocks to buy right now, and their generous membership-fee-back guarantee, simply enter your email below.