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By Mark Seed, myownadvisor
Special to Financial Independence Hub
Welcome to some new Weekend Reading about how I invest when the stock market is overvalued.
Continued inspiration for my investing approach (and related to the theme for this Weekend Reading edition) comes from this Humble Dollar article.
When most people are touting the stock market is “too high” to invest in, then, well, it probably is…
The challenge is, as I have personally experienced over the years as a DIY investor, there is no guarantee that all-time-highs don’t keep happening. You just don’t know when the party will end.
That’s it.
As the Humble article suggests, any market-timing strategies, appealing as they might seem are usually very unreliable in practice. And if you are unsure about whether you should invest at all, then at least prepare things could get worse.
“That’s why this is a good time — while the market is strong — to prepare, even if we can’t predict.”
Related to this theme, you might like this RBC article with this graphic for context.
Source: RBC.
As part of other interesting reads this week I found:
When Should You Sell a Stock?, was published by Ben Carlson. From Ben:
“The truth is knowing when to sell a stock is more art than science.”
Interesting retirement income case study in The Globe and Mail (subscription) here, about Ann-Marie, age 60, with >$340,000 in debt but wants to spend $100,000 per year in retirement. The math usually doesn’t work out well for any retirees servicing that much debt so late in life … so at least the planner called out the practical solution for higher cashflow:
“In short, selling the condo gives her a larger pool of investable assets earlier and lowers her monthly expenses….both benefits improve her chances of enjoying a long and secure retirement.”
Fortunately she doesn’t need to worry too much about cashflow…
“She belongs to a defined benefit pension plan that will pay $68,338 a year, indexed to inflation and including a bridge benefit to age 65. When the bridge benefit ends, her pension will fall to $61,430.”
Must be nice! 😉
From the oldie but goodie file, my friend Dividend Growth Investor consistently encourages all DIY investors to stay the investing course. From his post:
“The issue with stocks of course is that the amount and timing of future capital gains is largely unknown in advance. This is why people panic when prices start going down: they project the recent past onto the future indefinitely. They forget that stocks are not just some pieces of paper or blips on a computer screen, but real businesses that sell real goods and services to consumers who are willing to exchange the fruits of their labor for those goods and services. Over time, those businesses as group will likely learn ways to sell more, charge more, earn more and reward their shareholders. No matter the turbulence we will experience in the US and Global stock markets and economies in the short-run, I believe that things will be better for all of us ten years from now. And as investors, we invest for the long term, not for the next 5 years or 5 months.”
Mark Seed is a passionate DIY investor who lives in Ottawa. He invests in Canadian and U.S. dividend paying stocks and low-cost Exchange Traded Funds on his quest to own a $1 million portfolio for an early retirement. You can follow Mark’s insights and perspectives on investing, and much more, by visiting My Own Advisor. This blog originally appeared on his site on Nov. 1, 2025 and is republished on Findependence Hub with his permission.
