There's probably always going to be good reasons not to invest , I really don't think it's worth reading too much , if you google it you will get thousands of result and arguments on why the stock market will crash now or rise now. That's because nobody knows for sure.
I just look at the facts of what we know for sure , the stock market has proven to be one of the better places to keep your cash , this is because companies make profit and pay dividends they increase prices so you don't lose out to inflation , I don't give any time to megaphone charts, humans are terrible decision makers and look for patterns , I've read some good books on why we suck at decisions " thinking fast and slow " and some other book "fooled by randomness " I think it was called .
I don't think the majority of people are cut out for investing as I think dealing with losses and losing money is a skill in itself , as I say humans are terrible at these things and have an obsession with charts and looking for patterns , I see it in gambling , people are fooled by random events , 10 reds in a row on roulette get on black next , the mega phone chart is perfect for human mind as it's simple they can see clearly oh yeah this is going down now , the stock market crashed 8 years ago and another 8 years and another 8 years these are all random events , it's hard but block out the chart from your mind , I personally don't view charts of anything I but I don't care what price it was last month or last year or 5 years ago , I find it easy to let others decide the price in general any time you buy a liquid asset your not going to be too far off the true price this saved me a lot of time trying to value everything myself , short term volitility means checking your prices daily will drive yourself mad and your as likely to see a stock down as up but over the long term the stock market should have a positive return.
I don't think you should think of gold or equities or properly Or cash , you can have them all as part of a balanced portfolio.
The experts say gold goes up when equities go down as it is a safe haven but I'm not sure that had happened of late , I would not be keen on gold myself for similar reasons buffet mentioned and sarenco.