Squeeze the Stone

Of course you don’t, nor does anyone want you to. When you begin paying yourself every month, as you do with a retirement plan, not only do you get more long-term bang for your buck, you also take the risk out of investing this money. So you don’t have to be afraid. When you put the exact same amount of money month in, month out, into the same investment vehicle, you are taking advantage of the investment strategy known as dollar cost averaging. It puts time, your money, and the market all on your side at once. (We’ll talk about this more later.)
I believe this with all my heart, but regardless of what I say or what anyone says, you should invest only if you want to. The reason I say only if you want to is that even though investing for growth may be the right thing for you to do economically, it’s not the right thing to do if it keeps you up at night worrjing or makes you afraid all the time. As you’ll see in the next chapter, you must always trust your own gut feelings about money. If you can’t live with risk, you must invest where you feel safe investing. Perhaps your new truth will make you feel stronger about taking risks. Maybe reading throughout the rest of this book will make you feel differently about risks and your fears about money. But respect yourself first, and however you choose to invest, take care to understand how things work—or you might end up doing what Michael did.

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