Just came across this fascinating historical theory about economic cycles that honestly makes you think about the periods when to make money. Back in 1875, a guy named Samuel Benner was mapping out how financial markets move in predictable patterns – boom, recession, panic – and the timing is actually wild.

So here's how it breaks down. There are basically three phases in these periods when to make money:

First, you've got the panic years. Think 1927, 1945, 1965, 1981, 1999, 2019, and supposedly 2035 coming up. These hit roughly every 18-20 years and are absolute chaos – market collapses, financial crises, the works. The advice here is simple: don't panic sell. Just hold tight and wait it out.

Then there's the boom phase where prices are skyrocketing. Years like 1928, 1960, 1989, 2007, 2016, 2020, and get this – 2026 is supposedly in this category. These are your golden windows to actually take profits and sell. Markets are recovering, assets are climbing, and you're supposed to capitalize on it.

The third pattern is recession years where everything's dirt cheap. 1931, 1942, 1958, 1978, 1985, 2005, 2012, 2023, 2032 – these are when you're supposed to be loading up. Buy stocks, buy land, buy commodities. Hold everything until the boom years arrive, then you sell high.

The whole strategy is basically: buy low during recessions, hold through the chaos of panic years, sell high during booms. It's a simple framework for thinking about periods when to make money across different market conditions.

Now here's the thing – this is based on historical patterns and cyclical theory, not some law of physics. Markets get messy with politics, wars, tech breakthroughs, economic shocks, all kinds of variables. But as a long-term framework for understanding market psychology and timing, it's actually pretty interesting to keep in mind when you're thinking about your own investment strategy.