Friends, I decided to start investing at the age of 41. I invested 70% of my savings in ETFs and kept 30% in cash in case I needed to buy again. My investment horizon is 10 to 15 years. As for ETFs, I have 70% in the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF and 30% in the iShares Aging Population UCITS ETF.
I bought shares of the ETF two weeks ago and since then I keep reading about how people like Warren Buffet etc. are selling shares because they expect the markets to crash etc. Add to that possible tariff wars, trade wars... I'm pretty nervous about this and wondering if I'd better not sell stocks now and wait, as it seems I bought them at the worst possible time. I'd like to use the money for my kids' education etc, so I don't want to be irresponsible or naive in investing. Also, it was not easy to earn it...
Thank you all so much for your advice, I appreciate it. And sorry for my anxiousness, but as I understand from the discussions, I am not the only one at this time.
Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
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Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
Last edited by praguecowboy on Tue Feb 04, 2025 4:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
No you didn't make a big mistake. Ignore the news channels. The markets may be up or down in the next week, or month, or year. Over 10-15 years they're more likely to be up than down. I'm unfamiliar with the specific ETFs, though I would ask why a 41 year old is keeping 30% of his assets in an Aging Population CITS, a product I would expect to be pitched to folks in their 60s and up.
Re: Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
Are we supposed to post stuff with political premises like this?
If someone asks you the time, why are you telling them how to build a watch?
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Re: Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
Hi, I have not posted anything that could be considered "stuff with political premises". I wasn't expressing my political preferences, I was merely stating that some expected actions by a particular politician created a lot of uncertainty, especially for non-US investors. That is not to be interpreted as an assessment of them in any way. Still, thanks for the notice, I have deleted the specific names nonetheless.bikefish wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 4:29 am Are we supposed to post stuff with political premises like this?
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Re: Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
In 1987 I learned that by the time I make an investment decision regarding the news, it's too late and thus I simply stay the course. If you have the jitters and/or if your spouse does, it's time to reassess your investment strategy and also your nerves including the ability to not panic and to tune out the noise.
I assume you are in Prague. I remember in 1990 my pen-pal in Prague came to the US after the Velvet Revolution. He was stunned the first time he walked into a grocery store - literally took two steps back and gasped. The price of our economic system is it has its ups and downs and whatever allocation is chosen should provide a level of comfort. I know folks who have no stocks, some who are all stocks, one who only invests in church bonds. It's about what one feels comfortable with. Those who panic, I dare say without exception regret it.
I assume you are in Prague. I remember in 1990 my pen-pal in Prague came to the US after the Velvet Revolution. He was stunned the first time he walked into a grocery store - literally took two steps back and gasped. The price of our economic system is it has its ups and downs and whatever allocation is chosen should provide a level of comfort. I know folks who have no stocks, some who are all stocks, one who only invests in church bonds. It's about what one feels comfortable with. Those who panic, I dare say without exception regret it.
"History is the memory of time, the life of the dead and the happiness of the living." Captain John Smith 1580-1631
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Re: Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
In general, you may not want to invest in the stock market for funds you need in a year or two to buy a house or put kids through college. However in 10 to 15 years, you should be ahead. You may want to read your news sources from 10, 20, or 30 years ago, and see if their fears or high expectations actually happened. It is pretty hard to predict the market top, and also hard to predict the market bottom, so I suggest more time reading Bogleheads, and less time listening to talking heads. As Warren Buffett once said,praguecowboy wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 3:28 am Friends, I decided to start investing at the age of 41. I invested 70% of my savings in ETFs and kept 30% in cash in case I needed to buy again. My investment horizon is 10 to 15 years. As for ETFs, I have 70% in the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF and 30% in the iShares Aging Population UCITS ETF.
I bought shares of the ETF two weeks ago and since then I keep reading about how people like Warren Buffet etc. are selling shares because they expect the markets to crash etc. Add to that possible tariff wars, trade wars... I'm pretty nervous about this and wondering if I'd better not sell stocks now and wait, as it seems I bought them at the worst possible time. I'd like to use the money for my kids' education etc, so I don't want to be irresponsible or naive in investing. Also, it was not easy to earn it...
"The stock market is a mechanism for transferring wealth from the impatient to the patient."

Your comment about
not posted anything that could be considered "stuff with political premises".
could be considered naive, especially this year. If you use different news sources, you may have different ideas about reality, and use different words that may seem fair to you, but are dog-whistles to others. Even the previous sentence could be considered political.
Re: Did I make a rookie mistake in investing?
This thread has run its course and is locked (tariff, trade war). As explained by the site owner: Subject: A non-political discussion on tariff's impact [Locked with explanation]
Alex Frakt wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 3:17 am This is one of several threads on the topic of tariffs that have been locked or removed. I'm restoring this one because I want a place to explain our policies and because it's largely non-partisan even if it is off-topic.
The first forum policy that applies here is "discussions of proposed laws or regulations are prohibited." This applies to executive orders that have yet to take effect as well.
The reason for this is because it's basically a waste of everyone's time. Politicians constantly propose ideas that go nowhere. Even if the proposal gets as far as a bill being introduced, there is no assurance it will become law. Even if it does become law, it is the actual wording of the law that matters, and there are always important differences in that wording between the original proposal and the signed bill. Proposed regulations also go through a lengthy process that can result in considerable changes before becoming effective. Compared to laws and regulation, executive actions are relatively easy to make. But how, or even if, they end up being implemented is highly uncertain.
We also have a prohibition on general discussions of "US or world economic, political, tax, health care and climate policies". In fact general discussions of anything outside of investing news and investing theory is outside our scope. All other topics must be about your specific personal situation. Note that general economic theory is not investing theory. For example, discussions about the effects of tariffs on consumers (this thread) or trade or economic growth or governmental income are economics question, not investing questions. The only investing theory question I can see here is the historical effects of tariffs on the stock and bond markets. There are papers on this topic if anyone is interested in pursuing it.
The point of all this is simple utility. This is a non-commercial site with limited resources, most importantly the resource of moderator time, and I don't want to spend those resources on discussions that have little practical value to our participants or that fall outside our limited scope.