Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

The 6 best things to do with kids in the D.C. area this weekend 

The 33 best things to do in D.C. this weekend and next week

Trevor Williams’s escape act helps Nationals blank Rangers 

Young Georgians want to be part of Europe. Their government is in the way.

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

Taxes are inevitable. Paying to prepare them doesn’t have to be.

Wait, what is Stephen A. Smith talking about? Find out with our quiz.

Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention

Local sports networks go dark mid-game amid dispute with Comcast 

NASA moon capsule suffered extensive damage during 2022 test flight

Russian state media ramping up English, Spanish presence on TikTok, study finds

Apple is behind in AI and killed its self-driving car project. What’s next?

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Miss Manners: Offering my bedroom to guests

Ask Amy: My wife’s sister confessed her feelings for me

Carolyn Hax: Will request for a postnup offend much younger wife?

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

Adaptive equipment is making national parks more inclusive

This masterpiece ‘Birth of Venus’ probably isn’t of Venus at all

The beginner’s illustrated guide to watching an F1 race

Chinese EVs are good for the world. Biden says they’re bad for America. 

Why the Solomon Islands election matters to China and the U.S.

Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ like China, Russia, at campaign event

World Press Freedom Day, 2024

How Trump convinces Republicans to adopt extreme views

Campuses are grappling with the Gaza war. So are our columnists.

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Trump

The stock market keeps going up and up and up — and investors are feeling pretty good about it.

But financial pros have two words of advice for people looking to jump into the market as it flirts with new records: Move slowly.

Buoyed by President Trump’s promises of tax cuts, regulatory reform and increased infrastructure spending, the Dow Jones industrial average sailed past 21,000 last week, barely a month after it closed above 20,000 for the first time. Those gains, combined with stronger economic reports, have some investors feeling like the rally is just getting started.

Investors have not been this bullish about the stock market in 30 years, according to a recent survey of market professionals done by <a href="http://www.investorsintelligence.com/x/us_advisors_sentiment.html">Investors Intelligence</a>, an investment research firm.

But this kind of euphoria can also make some investors nervous about what will come next. Are the recent highs a sign that the market is nearing a peak and ready for a tumble? (The last time investors were this optimistic was 1987, the year of the infamous “Black Monday” market crash.) Or is this simply the market breaking new ground as part of a long-term rally?

But in the meantime, investors looking to buy more stocks can take the guesswork out of the equation by spreading out their purchases over time, financial advisers say. “The biggest mistake I see investors make is they have an all-or-none mind-set,” says JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist for TD Ameritrade.

Take someone with $25,000 to invest. Instead of pouring all of the money into the market at once, you can start by investing $5,000, says Kinahan. The rest of the money can be invested in steady increments over time.

This way, you can still benefit from market gains if stocks continue to rise. But by not putting all of your money at risk, you would still be somewhat protected if stocks fall, Kinahan says.

One approach is to start out by buying stocks in equal increments over a period of time, say six months or so, says Jeff Porter, chief investment officer of Sullivan, Bruyette, Speros and Blayney, a wealth management firm based in McLean, Va. If the market slides by 5 percent or more during that time, investors can take advantage by snapping up more stocks at discount, Porter says.

The tried-and-true method, known as dollar cost averaging, can help remove some of the emotions that cause investors to make horrible mistakes with their money, says Antwone Harris, a vice president and senior financial consultant with Charles Schwab.

Too often, people trying to time the ebbs and flows of the market end up buying stocks when they’re expensive and selling stocks when they’re down — a bad pattern that can exacerbate their losses.

Instead of trying to predict where stocks will go next, investors trying to decide how to allocate their money should focus on when they’ll need the cash, Harris says. Money that will be needed in five years or less — such as emergency savings or the down payment for a home — should probably be kept out of the stock market, he says.

And once investors have a long-term plan for their money, they should stick with it, Harris says. Consider people who were buying stocks in 2007, right before the Dow fell from about 14,000 to below 7,000. Those investors may have felt like they had the “worst luck” after seeing their portfolios cut in half, Harris says.

But if they were patient and stayed invested as the Dow climbed up to 21,000, they would have definitely made up those losses — and then some, he says.

<a href="http://wapo.st/2mmWgMM">Warren Buffett says this simple mistake has cost investors more than $100 billion</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2017/02/03/trump-to-target-long-awaited-rule-meant-to-protect-retirement-savers/?utm_term=.591328258808">Trump calls for review of long-awaited rule meant to protect retirement savers</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/10/10/how-to-start-investing-if-you-have-1000-or-less/?utm_term=.ce820e39fdba">How to start investing if you have $1,000 or less</a>

Jonnelle Marte covered personal finance for The Washington Post. She left The Post in August 2019.

Jonnelle Marte

The Washington Post

name

prism://prism.query/personal-finance/&limit=20

If you have a personal finance question for Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary, please call 1-855-ASK-POST (1-855-275-7678)

Personal Finance

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/business

Business

The source for business news and analysis. Covering economic policy, business policy, financial news, economic issues, stock market data, local business, technology and more.