I often feel I’m spending too much time trying to learn to invest.

There’s substantial literature, b/c many organizations, pensions, and families have a real need for preservation, and protection against inflation, but that’s all in theory. Let’s focus on the practical justifications for spending precious time…

A: I need to spend time experimenting to find the right mix that fits my risk appetite.

Q: Am I spending too much time given I invest merely ~20k?
%%A: i will invest more but only if I get confident.

Q: Am I spending too much time given I’m not improving as an investor?
%%A: my inv performance is not improving, but I have to feel more confident about it before I can lift more money out of time deposits.

Q: so many retail investors win then “give back” their /winnings/, and end up with no better performance than the index, so why bother and why spend the precious time?
%%A: i think many of them lose 30% of principal but learn something and then make 23% (or 61% or whatever) if you blindly look at end-to-end return over a few years. Note this is possible only with eq
%%A: It’s not fair to dismiss “retail investors” as a whole. Some do better.

Q: maybe just keep money in time deposits. Why bother investing?
%%A: there’s good chance (80%) that prudent and careful personal investment would grow your family savings by a steady rate of 4% or (much) more, while controlling the risk. It takes quite a bit of practice.

I need to learn to use limit orders…

— This is serious, grave matter —
By default, without enough sense of confidence, I would keep everything in bank accounts. Remember this 250k is my entire family savings. It will make (and feel like) a big difference when we lose it. It’s the basis for a lot of planning in the family. Many say you make this much a year, so 250k is no big deal, but in reality it probably takes 5-10 years to accumulate this much. Also, your income may drop – non-zero risk.