If You Make Just 1 Investing Move Right Now, History Says It Should Be This

With the U.S. stock market currently near record highs, investors are faced with a choice. Rather than waiting for a market correction before investing, history suggests that making one move now could prove beneficial. A low-cost S&P 500 index fund offers diversification and exposure to the broad market. Vanguard's research found that a lump-sum investment strategy outperformed spreading the same investment over three months 68% of the time over the following year.

Waiting for a lower entry price risks missing out on market returns, as U.S. stocks outperformed cash 76% of the time over one-year periods from 1976 to 2022. While the S&P 500 has fallen at least 10% in half of the years since 1980, waiting for a correction doesn't guarantee a lower price point. In fact, investing on the first trading day of each year produced an average 12.1% return over the period from 1990 to 2024, compared to just 6.6% for waiting for a 10% correction.

The Motley Fool's Stock Advisor team identified 10 top stocks for investors to consider, with S&P 500 Index not among them, offering potentially higher returns compared to the market average.