Cash or Investment

DoneWorking

Hi All

I am nearly ready to go ahead with transfer of my cash savings into an investment arrangement.

Should I wait until we have a clearer view on likely outcome of the situation in Ukraine

MEM62

You can always find a reason to wait.  However, the general wisdom is that you cannot time the market.  At some point you have to make the commitment and dive in.  

Thrugelmir

Is this an advised arrangement? 

DoneWorking

I am currently waiting to make a decision on which option to take up for my investment arrangement

I need to wait up to two months before I go ahead

Is cash relatively safe for now

Obviously I am aware of the impact of inflation

dunstonh

Markets are not down much.  its not classed as a crash until it is over 20% and we are at around 15%.   We have had crashes of 35%, 43% and 45% in the last 25 years as well as multiple in excess of 20%.      

So, when you invest, you know periods like this are going to happen.   You don't change how you invest because of it (although some people will move up the risk scale or add to their investments after a drop and reduce their risk after a long period of gain).

So, the current situation shouldn't really impact on whether you invest or not because a) you are going to see far worse than this over the years and b) you would be investing now after a 15% fall.    It may not have hit bottom but its better than investing 3 months ago when you probably wouldn't have asked this question.

Albermarle

Should I wait until we have a clearer view on likely outcome of the situation in Ukraine

It could well drag on for years .
Does your decision have to be 100% one way or the other . If you invest in stages , it probably will not influence the long term out look very much , but might make you feel a bit less stressed about the decision. 

tebbins

DoneWorking said:

Hi All

I am nearly ready to go ahead with transfer of my cash savings into an investment arrangement.

Should I wait until we have a clearer view on likely outcome of the situation in Ukraine

No one knows. It could be over as fast as the Suez crisis or turn into a long war like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. It could have negligble/manageable economic effects, it could be the start of another 1972-74 style crash.

Can you think of any time in your lifetime when there wasn't something going on in the news that would have made you ask the same question.
If you can, go on the wikipedia page for that year/decade, search "(that year) stock market crash". Look at "year in review" articles/clips for that year, get out a 20ty century chronicle if you have one.

Is a relatively small war by global standards likely to stop the global economy working?