The news has been heavy lately.
War in the Middle East. Many people’s lives were lost. The Gas prices are hitting the hip pocket in every possible ways. The fuel is the important commodity that carries everything that we need for us to live our life.
And of course markets reacting.
Experts predicting what might happen next.
At the same time, I couldn’t help remembering the days not too long ago when parts of Australia were burning under 47-degree heat. The warnings on the phone. The news showing families packing their cars. People leaving homes behind just to get to safety.
I remember thinking about the animals that didn’t get that choice.
And the homes where people had spent a lifetime collecting memories - photos, furniture, little things that once meant a lot - all quietly turning into ash.
Moments like that stay somewhere in the back of the mind. Also, to think how grateful I’m to not have such sorrows.
A simple conversation at home
One evening last week, the topic came up at home.
Nothing dramatic. Just a regular conversation after dinner.
My wife asked me a simple question.
“Should we move our super and ETF investments into cash for a while? With everything happening in the world… we don’t know what might happen to the markets.”
It wasn’t panic in her voice.
Just uncertainty.
And honestly, if this question had come up a few years ago, my reaction might have been the same. I might have opened the app immediately, looked at the numbers, and felt that familiar urge to do something.
Because when the world feels unstable, doing nothing can feel irresponsible.
The Instinct to Run
I’ve noticed something about myself over time.
When there is a calamity - it’s a natural instinct to runaway from it. To safety, to a place where we have an opportunity to reassess and then start to see from outside what’s something that we need for into the future.
When something dangerous appears, the instinct is simple.
Run.
Run to safety.
Run away from uncertainty.
That instinct probably kept our ancestors alive. But our human brains are still instinctively reacting to runaway from danger, calamity, fire and so does with the market crashes.
But I’ve also noticed how the same instinct quietly shows up in money and investing.
When the news gets worse, the thought that creeps in is:
Maybe I should just move everything to cash for now.
It feels safe.
It feels logical.
But when I sat there thinking about it, another thought slowly appeared.
The problem with trying to escape
If I try to exit the market during uncertain times, I have to be right twice.
I have to know exactly when to get out.
And then somehow know when to get back in.
And the uncomfortable truth is that by the time I’m thinking about exiting, the markets have usually already reacted.
The exit might already be late.
Then comes the harder part.
Sitting on cash.
Watching markets move.
Trying to guess the perfect moment to invest again.
And knowing myself, I’d probably wait for more clarity… more certainty… a better signal.
Until one day the market would quietly recover while I was still waiting.
I’ve seen that story happen too many times. And the quiet thought of:
“We should have stayed invested.”
A thought that stayed with me
While thinking about all this, an image came to mind.
A tree standing in a forest fire.
It doesn’t run.
It can’t.
The heat burns the bark.
Ash settles on the branches.
For a while, the tree looks damaged.
But when the fire passes and the rains return, something remarkable happens.
The same tree starts growing again.
Slowly.
Almost as if nothing happened.
I found myself thinking:
Maybe investing is a bit like that.
The fires will come.
Markets will burn sometimes.
Portfolios will look worse before they look better.
But over time, if the roots are strong enough, growth quietly resumes.
Volatility is the fire, Time is the rain.
Why I sleep well with index funds
A big reason I feel calm is because of where the money sits.
Most of it is invested in broad index ETFs.
For example, funds that track something like the ASX 300.
What I like about index investing is its quiet simplicity.
If a company falls out of the top 300, it disappears from the index.
If another company grows and enters the top 300, it takes its place.
The portfolio adjusts automatically.
No decisions from me.
No predictions required.
Just a system quietly evolving in the background.
Sometimes I think:
Maybe my job is simply to stay out of the way.
The circle of control
When I look at the news about wars and global politics, another realisation comes up.
There is almost nothing I can do about those things.
I can’t influence how world leaders respond.
I can’t control geopolitical tensions.
I can’t predict how markets will react.
But there are a few things I can control.
My behaviour.
My patience.
And my consistency.
If anything, uncertain times sometimes remind me, it’s of something simple - if I’ve a spare cash sitting around, moments like these might actually be opportunities to add a little more.
Not because I know where the bottom is.
Just because prices sometimes become more attractive when the world feels uncomfortable.
Living with the uncertainty
I honestly don’t know when markets will stabilise.
I don’t know when conflicts will end.
And I don’t think I’m supposed to know those things.
What I can do is much simpler.
I can stay calm.
I can keep investing regularly.
I can continue dollar-cost averaging into index funds.
And then close the investment app and go back to the rest of life - family dinners, school runs, weekend walks, and ordinary conversations at home.
Sometimes the most sensible strategy feels almost boring.
But over time, boring has quietly proven to be powerful.
And so for now, I’m choosing to stay where I am.
A little like that tree in the burning forest.
Scarred sometimes.
But still rooted.
Still growing.
It’s easy to be complex and it’s hard to be simple and keep going with the plan.