Why Long-Term Investors Keep Buying, Even During A Crisis
When markets fall sharply, it’s human nature to feel a rising sense of fear. The headlines scream words like crash, meltdown, recession. In those moments, it's easy to question everything — your investments, your strategy, even your future. But if history has taught investors anything, it’s this:
The key to long-term success isn’t avoiding downturns — it’s staying invested through them.
For disciplined investors, market crises are not a time to retreat. They’re an opportunity to build wealth.
Short-Term Fear vs. Long-Term Vision
The emotional urge to “do something” during a market drop is strong. Watching your portfolio shrink can be unsettling. But reacting emotionally is often the worst move a long-term investor can make.
Markets are always unpredictable in the short term. Volatility is the price we pay for the long-term growth potential of equities. What matters more than short-term swings is your ability to maintain a long-term vision and stick to a consistent investing strategy.
Don’t Try to Predict — Just Participate
Trying to time the market — to predict highs and lows — is incredibly difficult. Even professional fund managers with research teams and algorithms rarely get it right consistently.
Instead of trying to time the market, wise investors stay in the market. They know that long-term growth is powered by innovation, productivity, and human progress — forces that move forward despite wars, recessions, and political chaos.
The goal isn’t to guess what happens next — it’s to participate in the long-term growth of the global economy.
Why Crises Create Opportunity
When markets fall, fear rises — and prices drop. During these moments, many investors panic and sell. But the most successful investors do the opposite: they keep buying.
Think of it this way — if you saw a quality home, car, or even your favourite coffee brand selling at 30% off, you’d see it as a bargain. Yet, when stock prices fall by 30%, many investors panic instead of buying more.
As Warren Buffett famously said:
"Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful."
Downturns feel terrible in the moment, but they often provide the best buying opportunities. Those who keep investing through a crisis often emerge far stronger on the other side.
The Cost of Missing the Market’s Best Days
One of the strongest arguments for staying fully invested is how costly it can be to miss the market’s best days — which often come during or just after a crisis.
For example:
An investor in the S&P 500 from 1990 to 2024 who stayed fully invested could have earned around 10% per year.
If that investor missed just the 10 best days, their return drops significantly.
Miss the 20 best days, and the return is cut nearly in half.
Here’s the catch: the best days often follow the worst. If you sell during a downturn, you risk missing the sharpest part of the recovery.
That’s why it’s often said: Time in the market beats timing the market.
Keep Buying: The Power of Dollar-Cost Averaging
Continuing to invest during a downturn — even when it feels uncomfortable — is one of the most powerful strategies available to everyday investors. It’s called dollar-cost averaging.
This means investing a fixed amount at regular intervals, regardless of market conditions. When prices are high, your money buys fewer shares. When prices are low, it buys more.
Let’s say you invest $1,000 each month:
In January, shares are $50 → you buy 20 shares.
In February, shares drop to $40 → you buy 25 shares.
In March, shares fall further to $30 → you buy 33.3 shares.
Your average cost per share is now lower than if you’d invested everything upfront. Over time, this approach reduces risk and helps you build wealth steadily, especially during downturns.
Case Study: The S&P 500 — A Century of Resilience
To see the power of staying invested through market downturns, look no further than the S&P 500, which tracks 500 of America’s largest companies.
Over the last century, this index has endured many market events:
*Chart provided from Creative Planning
Each time, the market fell, sometimes sharply. And each time, it recovered, often strongly.
📈 If you had invested $10,000 in the S&P 500 in 1980, reinvesting all dividends, your investment would be worth over $1 million today.
This didn’t happen because of market timing. It happened because of long-term commitment, resilience, and staying the course — through every crisis.
Common Objections — and Why to Push Through
Even with all this historical evidence, many investors struggle to keep investing during tough times. Here are some common objections and why they don’t hold up:
“What if this time is different?”
Every crisis feels different. But history shows that markets—and economies — always find a way forward. The resilience of capitalism, innovation, and global trade is extraordinary.
“I’ll wait until things feel safer.”
By the time it feels “safe” to invest, prices have often already rebounded. Waiting for comfort can mean buying back in at higher prices and missing the gains.
“I can’t afford to lose more.”
This is why you need a portfolio aligned with your goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. If that’s in place, a downturn shouldn’t derail your plan — and selling guarantees losses.
Build a Plan That Endures
Staying the course becomes much easier if you have a clear investing plan, ideally supported by long-term financial modelling.
Ask yourself:
Why are you investing?
When will you need the money?
How much risk can you truly tolerate?
With that in place, you can view downturns not as threats but as opportunities to continue building wealth while others panic.
Final Thought: A Crisis Is Not the End
Looking back over history, market corrections (10%+ drops) happen every 1–2 years. Bear markets (20%+ drops) occur every 5–7 years.
These are not strange outliers — they are part of the rhythm of investing. They feel terrible in the moment, but for those who stay disciplined, they’re just bumps along the road to long-term growth.
💡 Bottom line:
Stay calm. Stay invested. Keep buying. Your future self will be glad you did.
Hebden Consulting helps expats and globally mobile professionals build resilient portfolios backed by long-term cashflow planning. Want to see how your plan holds up under different market conditions?
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