Invest bi-weekly or every quarter with fees for transactions?

[human]

Has anyone else here stuck with their bank to buy etfs? I live in Canada and have a BMOIL account. I'm not sold yet on switching to Questrade it seems they mess up tax slips all the time. I also like the service at BMO, when I have a question I can get through pretty easily even during busy periods.

Real question is: with a transaction fee of $9.95 would you invest every two weeks (my payday), every month or quarter? I've been playing around with cheesy interest calculators and assuming 6% growth every year investing over twenty years could add 80k by investing biweekly compared to monthly or quarterly. I was thinking of investing quarterly or monthly to save about $200 in transaction fees, but it doesn't really seem like it's worth delaying.

I plan on investing 1-1.25k every two weeks or 6-7.5k every quarter in only 4-5 vanguard etf funds. If I invest every two weeks I can switch between the funds easily every payday.

Any thoughts or comments? I'm sure tons will tell me to just switch already . . . If anyone on here invests with their bank and would like to let me know how they go about doing it, it would be greatly appreciated.

[ender]

So basically your transaction fee is less than 1% ($10/$1250 = 0.8%)?

Your average length of return will be 1.5 months so if your yearly expected return is higher than about 6.4% (12/1.5 * 0.8%) you are better off investing biweekly.

[human]

Apparently simple math isn't my strong point. Thanks for the facepunch. Does that term apply here?

[Heckler]

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2012/07/30/comparing-the-costs-of-index-funds-and-etfs/

Download the spreadsheet and give it a try. Compare your own portfolio’s costs to the Global Couch Potato options, being sure to include all trading costs and account fees.

[Heckler]

I'm also with IL.  I had the plan to contribute small amounts to a BMO mutual fund, let it accumulate, and then transfer it to self directed and buy Vanguard.  I realized I'm better off to save up for 2 months and buy a minimum amount.  My rule I just came up with today, is if the fund I'm buying will return the $9.95 in one month of dividends, then I'll go ahead and buy it.  For bonds, it's about $5000, for equity about $1000.

[Heckler]

I also have a Sunlife work plan, which matches 5% of contributions, uses index funds and has MERs less than 0.6%.  I accumulate there, and once a year move everything over for free, and then buy Vanguard once.

[human]

Thanks heckler, in terms of transaction costs it seems td eseries would be cheapest (about 80 bucks less for me), but the return is .5% less. Of course I could still get questrade and forget commission altogether. I'll stick with BMOIL for now, I'm in the gov so get 50% employer match on the pension.