Last month I recommended that folks with investing timelines beyond five years should hang in there and hold on to their equity investments, if possible. Today I'm sharing thoughts for anyone who moved to cash and is trying to figure out how and when to get back in.

Many people have an idea of investing in stocks that sounds like this:

1. Buy stocks, preferably at a low price.

2. Sell if you think prices are going to drop.

3. Buy everything back after prices have fallen, but before they start rising again.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you retire.

The problem with this strategy is that you'd need to be able to consistently predict the future in order to pull it off.

At the end of January, coronavirus news sent the markets into a tumble. But last week's collapse made the January slump look like small potatoes.

Historic market drops remind us that markets are volatile and unpredictable. Bear markets and recessions happen. And unfortunately, there's no way to predict exactly when they will happen, how bad they'll be, or how long they'll last.That's why you should protect any funds that you expect to use in the next 5 years from risk.