I convinced my wife to let me invest 20k of our savings but am terrified to make any moves because it seems like things might fall apart any minute. Seems like most common ETFs are up, but since I am new to this, waiting makes more sense to me. Am I the classic bad example of waiting?

Long-time lurker. Not looking for free advice.. just perspective from people who have experience in this. I have never invested a cent. I want to create generational wealth for my family; my parents are super poor. Buying 20k worth of investments in what I consider a volatile market (again, knowing nothing) seems really risky and runs counter to my plan to build wealth. If I buy today and we go into a global recession tomorrow.. how screwed would I be vs if I had waited? Is waiting *always* bad? I've heard about catching the falling knife, but is it really always better to buy now vs waiting?