Many people try to time the S&P 500 only to find that they missed out on a great buying opportunity. Timing the market is a poor strategy when you're only concerned with long-term investing. However, there is a better approach if you aren't sure whether it's safe to jump in. The method is known as dollar-cost averaging. Here is the definition of dollar-cost averaging taken straight from mutualfundstore's website: "Dollar-cost averaging = a simple practice that involves putting an amount of money each month into your investment and retirement accounts on a regular basis. When you set up a 401(k) at work that automatically puts money into the account directly from your paycheck, you’re using dollar cost averaging – even if you don’t know it. This strategy's not limited to 401(k) accounts, however. Clients of The Mutual Fund Store® could take advantage of the Money Link service provided by the account custodian (Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.), whereby you work with your investment advisor to set up a monthly auto-withdrawal from your bank account into your Schwab account. Your advisor will then invest that money on a regular basis for you. In addition to dollar cost averaging, Money Link has another benefit. It allows you to purchase some mutual funds with a lower minimum initial investment than you may otherwise be subject to, as long as you establish a minimum monthly investment of at least $50 per month (depending on the individual fund family). " In other words, rather than purchasing $50000 worth of the market at once, you would spread that out. For example, $500 every day for 100 days. This way, you buy the average cost of the stock or shares spread over those 100 days. There you go! No more fretting about whether you need to time the market and missing awesome opportunities.