Shouldn’t anyone relatively young be rejoicing and buying as much as they can right now?

I’m a beginner, so bare with me.

No one can predict the future, as we hear a million times. What about taking advantage of what’s already happened though? Down almost 20% for 2022

If I have it right, isn’t it a million times better to be buying on the way down, not up? As a 33 year old, I’d rather have it be 20% down, not up.

As an analogy, say you bought a shirt you really like at the mall for $20. You go back to the mall a few weeks later and want another one because you like it so much. Except now you notice the price is $25, what would your reaction be? Chances are not excited, heck some people probably wouldn’t buy it even though they wanted it, over an extra $5! That’s sort of how I view a low cost long term ETF, I don’t want to buy as it gets more expensive

SPY as a quick example out of many, is at $382 right now. Eventually it’s going to be $400, then $450, then $500 etc

The big sale is now.

I’m not trying to time anything, is my thinking correct though? As far as taking advantage of what’s already happened? Then if it goes down even more then that’s even better? Heck I hope VOO drops another 20%

Now seems like a golden time before the rebound/recovery, as we’ll eventually see ATH’s again

I hope all 2023 is flat so I have a great year of buying on sale