Minimum period for investing All world Global trackers?

mears1

Is 12 years of investing in the same (buy and hold) 'all world' tracker long enough, given the turmoil, at the moment? 

MX5huggy

Probably, but for a single lump sum it may not be, look at Japan 1989 to today still not made it back to ATH (although that’s ignoring dividends). 

grumiofoundation

Long enough for what?

mears1

grumiofoundation said:

Long enough for what?

For selling. Would be allowing it to grow in my isa meanwhile.

eskbanker

mears1 said:

Is 12 years of investing in the same (buy and hold) 'all world' tracker long enough, given the turmoil, at the moment? 

The reason it's recommended to invest for a long time is precisely to avoid having to worry about any impact from short term issues, however turbulent they may seem.

Nobody can know for sure that 12 years will definitely work, but the odds heavily favour it, based on historical precedent....

DoublePolaroid

Have a look here and here for some data relating the last 50 years and investment returns over time from developed world index trackers. For what it’s worth. 

Thrugelmir

Investing would be easy if future events were predictable. 

Sebo027

DoublePolaroid said:

Have a look here and here for some data relating the last 50 years and investment returns over time from developed world index trackers. For what it’s worth. 

That second link, https://occaminvesting.co.uk/time/, looks a good resource. 

I always refer anyone wanting to invest money to the below book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RJPZBUEDMOQ7&keywords=smarter+investing&qid=1646640148&sprefix=smarter+investing,aps,167&sr=8-1

london21

Hard to time the market or know the future. No one predicted or expected the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

 and crazy energy prices for example. 

GeoffTF

eskbanker said:
Nobody can know for sure that 12 years will definitely work, but the odds heavily favour it, based on historical precedent....

If you start from a random point in time. The present time may not be typical.

Malthusian

GeoffTF said:

If you start from a random point in time. The present time may not be typical.

If you start from any point in past time, as far back as historic stockmarket data exists, and fast forward 12 years, an all world global tracker would have beaten cash, 100% of the time. The record length of time for a diversified investment to still be underwater is around 6 years (dot-com crash and possibly Great Depression).

The only reason we can't be certain that 12 years would be long enough is that records are made to be broken and past performance is no guide to the future.