How long are you ok with losing potential gains? Yes, eventually we will get a bear market. Most likely when few people expect it. If you listened to all the articles titled, "he called the 20XX, crash and this is what he says now", you would have lost out on enough gains and then some to make up a "most likely" stock correction. The market makes its greatest gains on a handful of days each year. If you are out of the market you lose those days. A smarter question to ask would be what is your investment horizon, are you a 10+ year investor or are you investing for a house? And use that answer to guide your investment portfolio balance.