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Avoiding timing traps with long term index investing
It's amusing that despite all the evidence that "you can't time the market", everyone still wants to try.  Of course I understand your fear.  If you invest all your money in the stock market today and it suddenly falls tomorrow you will feel very bad.  There are a few things you can do to reduce your risk with respect to timing, however: Don't plop all your money down on the same day.  Invest in the market over time, perhaps a few hundred dollars per month worth (depending on your appetite).  This averages your purchase cost to ensure you aren't buying at the time when prices are highest.  The down side is of course that if you leave cash sitting around, you might also not be buying when the prices are lowest either and will probably miss out on some gains.  Still, if risk is your concern, this is a sound strategy. Invest in various markets overseas.  This will expose you to some currency risk, but lower your timing risk, as even with globalization markets don't rise and fall in tandem.   Even with both of the above, you can still be just plain unlucky (or lucky).  I would recommend that you invest only money that you don't need to take out in the near future (in order to reduce the chance that the money will have lost value since you put it in!), and that you don't watch the markets since it makes a lot of people nervous and tends to prod them into doing exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.