Stock Market Fears That Keep You Broke
Waiting Feels Safer… But Is Costing You Massively
In a perfect world, we’d buy stocks at their lowest point and sell at the absolute peak before they fall again and repeat this forever.
That’s the game the average person thinks you have to play when it comes to the stock market.
But here’s the truth most people rarely hear… The game is deeper than micromanaging your entry and exit points.
Most people get stuck because they end up micromanaging every move, zigzagging in and out of the market based on the day’s headlines instead of trusting the biggest wealth machine to work for them.
What really matters in the long-run isn’t whether you bought in at $100 or $105, it’s whether the companies you’re investing in continue to grow and execute over the years and decades you own them.
When you’re investing in a solid business (whether it’s an individual stock or groups of stocks like the S&P 500) you’re not just buying a random price on a screen.
You’re buying the future potential of a company or group of companies to keep growing and delivering results.
Over time, the stock price will reflect that growth (or lack of growth).
But in the short term, the stock price can jump wildly. We've seen just that over the last few months alone.
And no one can predict that consistently, not even the smartest people on Wall Street.
Despite that, we still have many people sitting on the sidelines, trying to dodge every red day and avoid every short-term dip.
Ironically, that fear of short-term market dips ends up keeping them broke.
Because if you can’t handle seeing your portfolio in the red for a few weeks or even a few months, then you’ll always struggle in the market.
The short term will always be messy and unpredictable.
And that’s okay because the long term is where the magic happens anyways if you’re willing to play the game with years in mind, not days.
The people who think they can dance in and out of the market to catch only the green days end up doing the exact opposite: they buy when everyone’s excited and sell when everyone’s afraid.
That’s of course a guaranteed way to underperform and lose a lot of money.
The real trap is believing that waiting for the “perfect moment” will save you from losses.
The truth is, waiting too long is its own form of risk… The risk of missing out on growth, on compounding, and on the opportunities that only come to those who show up when everyone else freezes.
Every moment you spend on the sidelines letting fear and hesitation dictate your decisions is a moment you’re not building wealth.
Even in a choppy market, those who stick to a long-term plan (the ones who see market crashes as opportunities instead of the end of the world) are the ones who come out ahead.
Either way, investing is about the business itself, not just the short-term stock prices you see on your iPhone.
And the longer you let short-term fears hold you back, the longer you delay your own financial freedom.
Your Cash is Losing 3% Every Year While You Wait
A lot of people think cash is the safest place to be.
And yeah, cash feels nice when markets are choppy and uncertain.
But the problem is that inflation is eating away at your cash every single day.
In the U.S. right now, inflation is running at about 3% per year based on government data.
It’s likely even higher depending on how you measure it.
That means every dollar you leave idle is losing at least 3% of purchasing power every year.
That might not sound like much until you zoom out… Imagine you had $100,000 in 1960. That same $100,000 would need to be more than a million dollars today just to have the same purchasing power it had back in 1960.
That’s the real risk of cash that many don’t talk about.
Cash doesn’t just sit still, it shrinks over-time.
Right now, there’s over $6 trillion sitting on the sidelines just waiting, according to Visual Capitalist.
But cash isn’t a wealth-building asset. It’s just paper.
It can’t grow on its own. It needs to be put to work by being invested in stocks, a business, real estate, or even yourself.
Cash isn’t designed to be held over long periods of time, it’s meant to be deployed.
Hoarding cash might feel safe because it doesn’t swing like stocks do...
But in the long run, cash is actually the biggest loser of them all.
Quality companies might dip in the short term. But over 5, 10, 15 years they have higher odds of growth and outpacing inflation.
At the end of the day, idle cash is the riskiest move out there because it GUARANTEES you’re losing money every single year.
Most people think they’re avoiding risk by staying in cash but in reality, they’re locking in losses every year and missing out on the growth that builds real wealth.
Don’t let that be you.
Dips Aren’t the Enemy, they're Opportunities
The last five years have been some of the most volatile I’ve ever seen.
From COVID’s sharpest crash in recent history to one of the quickest recoveries ever.
That crash tested me as an investor.
But it was also the moment I realized that this is the real test: are you playing the long-term game or are you letting short-term fear dictate your moves?
Here’s what I’ve noticed over the last 5 years alone: the people who focus only on the short-term rarely take advantage of the dips.
They always wait for things to “clear up” or feel “safe” again.
They’re too busy running away from the chaos.
When the market gets choppy and the market noise gets louder, the short-term players get quiet. But the long-term investors with a plan always lean in.
Long-term investors understand that while markets dip, the businesses that make up those markets (like the companies in the S&P 500) are designed to adapt, to find opportunities, and to grow profits.
And when you understand that, it gets easier to see dips as exactly what they are: opportunities.
Most people never see the opportunity during the market dips because they get caught up in the fear.
And yeah, the fear feels real especially when the headlines are screaming about the next recession or market crash 24/7…
But what the headlines don’t tell you is that the people who play the asset ownership game are the ones who come out ahead.
That’s literally how the system is designed.
And when you start to see investing through that lens of buying a portion of a business that’s built to make money, everything starts to shift.
If the business itself is still fundamentally strong and nothing has drastically changed except people’s emotions around it, that’s not a time to run away.
That’s a time to pay attention and consider the long-term opportunity that most are missing.
I’ve had people message me during every market dip (from COVID to the recent tariff uncertainty) telling me I’m wrong to continue to stack assets.
Telling me the next Great Depression is coming and to sell.
But every time, I stuck to my plan and stuck to my strategy.
And every time, the market found a way to recover and I got richer.
There’s an old saying on Wall Street: “Bears sound smart but bulls make money.”
That’s all you really need to know about the noise…
What you do during uncertain moments is what drives your entire financial future.
It’s the same in life too. If you’re always scared to act because things are uncertain, you’ll stay stuck in the same place forever.
Fear loves to paralyze us.
But fear is the most expensive investing strategy to follow out there.
That’s why the best investors (the ones who actually build wealth) are the ones who can stay calm during the noise.
They understand that dips are temporary and lean on the investing system or plan they’ve built instead.
Warren Buffett said it best: “Emotions are great. Just not with your money.”
So the next time the market gets choppy, remember this: the opportunity is there but only if you have the courage to see it.
Compounding Isn’t Just About Money
If you don’t understand how compound interest works, you’ll never understand the power of long-term investing.
I recently had a conversation with someone who asked me why they’d settle for 10% returns when it feels so small…
They thought they needed 100% returns overnight to actually have a chance at retiring.And that mindset is where most people get stuck…
And that mindset is where most people get stuck…
They’re stuck chasing the “jackpot returns” and run towards the headlines about stocks that jumped 200% overnight but don’t realize that by the time the hype hits, it’s usually too late to get in.
They want quick wins but they ignore the most powerful force in investing: compounding.
A steady 10% annual return might sound slow at first but over a few decades it can easily grow to multiple millions depending on how much you invest.
Compound interest always starts off slow, but it grows more powerful as time passes.
Warren Buffett is the perfect example: 98% of his $160 billion wealth came after turning 65.
But compounding isn’t only about money. It’s about the choices you make every single day.
The version of you reading this in 2025 is the result of every small choice you made in 2020.
The meals you ate, the workouts you skipped, the money you invested (or didn’t). That’s compounding in action. And it applies to everything: your health, your skills, your relationships.
Every habit you build today is the foundation for who you’ll become in 2030.
Just like a small snowball rolling down a hill, it picks up more snow, gets bigger, and then picks up even MORE snow. That’s compounding in action.
Once you truly understand compounding, you’ll stop trying to get rich overnight and stop chasing the distracting headlines.
You’ll focus on building a strong foundation in investing, in your health, in your mindset and then let time do its thing.
That’s how real wealth is built anyways and it's the difference between the people who build success and the ones who burn out chasing the next big thing.
Compounding isn’t just a financial principle. It’s a life principle. The sooner you get it working for you, the better off every part of your life will be.
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” - James Clear
Regret Is the Most Expensive Mistake
One of the most common things I hear from people who finally decide to start investing (especially if they’re in their 40s or 50s) is that they wish they’d started sooner.
Every single person I’ve coached who’s made it through that first wave of learning and finally built a long-term investing strategy says the same thing: “Josh, I wish I’d started ten years ago...”
That regret is one of the biggest reasons I built Money Mastery.
It’s so easy to say “I’ll do it later” but every year you wait is a year you will never get back. And at that point you’re not just delaying investing, you’re delaying your financial freedom.
You’re delaying the peace of mind that comes from making work optional.
You’re delaying the option to travel, to spend more time with family, to build the life you actually want to live.
I had a call with a guy from the UK recently who told me he probably never would’ve started investing if he hadn’t found The Market Hustle.
He joined Money Mastery last month and finally got the confidence and clarity to act.
And that’s what moves me most: seeing people finally take control of their financial lives instead of waiting for some “perfect” moment that never comes.
I’ll be blunt too: learning to invest takes time. If you didn’t grow up with financial education, you’ll probably need 20 to 30 hours of focused learning to really understand the stock market and build a strategy you can trust, which is exactly why most people push it off.
It’s easier to stay in your comfort zone than to face the learning curve.
But the cost of waiting is the most expensive financial mistake you can make.
Every day you delay, you’re missing the compounding effect that builds wealth over time.
You’re missing the chance to make memories, to say yes to opportunities, to live life on your terms.
All of the decisions I made in the past (the sacrifices, the discipline, the consistency to show up even when I didn’t feel like it) are why I was able to take my recent trip to Tokyo fully paid without debt.
That freedom didn’t happen overnight. It happened because I started before I felt “ready” and paid it forward every year.
If you’re reading this in your 40s or 50s and feel that regret creeping in, the good news is it's not too late.
With health and technology advancing, most people are living longer than ever.
You still have time, but only if you start now. Regret only gets heavier as the years pass.
You don’t want to be the person who looks back at 60 or 70 still working because you never took the time to invest...
The best time to start was yesterday. The second best time is right now.
Go make your future self proud.
They’re watching the moves you’re making (or not making) right now.
