For those who can appreciate Waterfall chart! This one chart tells the complete story of Uncle8888 on how he has built his net worth from lifetime of earned income after tax for 39 years as employee from Aug 1977 to Sep 2016; and 18 years of investing journey from Jan 2000 till now through several market cycles of Boom and Doom suffering large losses as well. It is a investing journey of pains, doubts, and learning! When we lost too much in the Bear market; and we will be spending the next Bull trying to recover from large loss just to break even. Is this called investing? LOL! Why timing the market and time in the market are very important? When you spend too much time in the market with your stock holding BUT too little cash on hand in the Bear market; you are going to cry sooner! ......