"Shut Up And Wait" Taking A Page Out Of Buffetts Book And Long Term Investing

2024 is finally here, and was there a recession as financial “gurus” guaranteed it would happen? No. Did stocks fall to the lows of last year? No. Was the Fed forced to do an emergency cut in fears of economic turmoil due to the rapid rate increase? No. The bottom line is that pessimism always sounds great and makes the headlines consistently, while optimists like Fundstrats Thomas Lee are laughed at. 

Well, the joke here is on everyone else because, at the end of the day, the markets have gone up and to the right for almost a century. Time and time again, investors lose out because they listen to all of the fear-mongering and sell at the bottom but buy at the top when everything has already turned around. We are here to tell you to just buy over time no matter what the market conditions are because, over time, you will be drastically ahead of the guy who is selling in fear of a recession. 

Sure, there are caveats to this rule if you plan on retiring soon (within five years) or are over-leveraged and can not afford to wait out the short-term turmoil. Outside of those few reasons, as an investor, you should buy core stocks/ETFs (SPDR S&P 500 SPY, Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 QQQ , Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO , etc.) no matter the condition and just hold. Also, all the above ETFs are currently near or at all-time highs. Oh, and sure, these could collapse and never return higher, but if they do, money wouldn’t matter anymore because that would be the end of our economic system as we know it. So unless you are betting on the destruction of the US economy, buy and hold. 

Even some of the more speculative stocks, like Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN, are up over 400% since 2022’s drop. If you bought at the IPO high with an initial investment of USD 5000.00 but continued to buy over time at about USD 100/month, you would be up 15%. This is not the case for all stocks, but our point is even some speculative stocks (as compression to core stocks/ETFs) invested over time produced gains. So don’t cut because the guy on TV said we are headed for the worst year ever and then get back in because the same group on TV says stocks are heading for all-time highs, but buy, hold, and continue to buy, period. 

Make sure you follow us @Thashcapital on X (Twitter) for our top stocks to watch coming into 2024. We will also write a detailed article on those stocks and why we love them in the new year.

This article is from an external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga's reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.