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Comment by sifar | Hacker News Reader

Losing 2-3% per year is better than losing 10/20/30 % or god forbid >50% of your savings - which you cannot recoup.

It depends on what they are saving for - if they need the 20-30K a year down the line it is alright to keep it in the savings account.

If it is for general long term asset building - may be they haven't yet figured out how best to start investing. Again no harm to keep it parked till you figure it out instead of investing in haste and then regret later - for the rest of your life.

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I know people who have been sitting on the sidelines afraid to invest in what must be the tail end of the longest bull market we've ever seen.

One in particular has been sitting on the sidelines since before the 2016 election season. They have foregone about a 50% gain that they'd have gotten over that period. That money also can never be recouped.

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market...

It’s not a gain unless it’s realized.

If one owns a stock and the price goes up 10% they don’t make any money. They would have to sell to make money.

At some point “Bob” needs to retire, hopefully that’s not during a downturn.

Yup. You’ve got it right. I am far more interested in preserving capital than chasing returns at this point. So keeping it parked while using it to capitalize cash flow from businesses and real estate is more to my liking than making one giant bet on an index fund over 30-40 years. Don’t get me wrong I’m not knocking index funds they have their place.

May be you can start with small steps to test the waters. Amount that you are ok to lose in an extreme event. Which might cause you some inconvenience but not great distress. Perhaps 5-10% of your savings in equities. Watch how you repond to the market swings (both up and down) and factor that in for your future investments.

This kind of thinking is creating a dangerous bubble at this time

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