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Investing: Wait For It...?

JOHANNES EISELE
/
AFP/Getty Images

Whether you're new to investing, or if you've been investing for years, you are going to run into the question of whether or not you should 'time the market.' Timing the market essentially means guessing when is the best time you should put your money to work. Buy low, sell high, right? It sounds so obvious. But as Jill Schlesinger tells Stacey in this episode, falling for the temptation of trying to time the market is a fool's errand. Jill is the author of a new book: The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money. She's also a former trader, who draws on her own experiences - and failures - to illustrate why market timing is a bad strategy.

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Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money, and is a correspondent for Planet Money.