I entered the job market 2.5 years ago and at that point I just could not bring myself to invest any after tax dollars into the market... it just felt too expensive. Instead i’ve been maxing the 401K, and putting all my after tax retirement money into a cash position. Also, decided to start an HSA next calendar year and max it out, since the tax benefits are just too nice to pass on them.
I really hate trying to time the market, and can’t believe I’m kind of doing it myself... anyway like someone said, I don’t need to time it perfectly. I’m waiting for it to get low enough from the peak (~25-30% downturn), then I’ll split my cash position in 12+ month sums and invest it back in with my monthly retirement amount.
Hopefully it works well for me, but if it explodes on my face ’m still young enough to recover.