Buy now?

[stachestache]

Greetings,

I have saved up the minimum initial investment of $10K to buy VTSAX. As I write this, the share price is $62.23 and at a mini-peak (technical term). My plan for this fund it to put $450 every-other week into it. Should I wait for the share price to drop a  little before putting the $10k into it to open the account? I understand that dollar-cost-averaging will help me in the long run and buying shares every other week should take care of that.

Part of me says just buy it now and get on with it.

Also, this is a wonderful thing to be able to share with the community as this was one of my goals for the year -- to save and open this account with Vanguard. I am on track to max out my pre-tax account at work and also max out a Roth IRA.

[BigHaus89]

Always buy when you have the money to do so.

[Raenia]

Buy now.  When you have the money is always the right time to buy :)

Also, congrats on maxing your tax-advantaged options and still having enough to open your Vanguard account!

[JohnSteed]

VTSAX suffers from home-country bias. I would suggest something more internationally diversified. 

[ooeei]

VTSAX suffers from home-country bias. I would suggest something more internationally diversified.

Apple is the top holding, and it gets more than half of its revenue outside of the US. There's nothing wrong with VTSAX, and it's an uncomplicated choice. No need to worry about asset allocations and all that mess right now.

VTSAX is a fine choice, and I'd suggest you invest immediately.  The best time to invest is 20 years ago, the second best time is right now.

[saveysavesalot]

Apple is the top holding, and it gets more than half of its revenue outside of the US. There's nothing wrong with VTSAX, and it's an uncomplicated choice. No need to worry about asset allocations and all that mess right now.

VTSAX is a fine choice, and I'd suggest you invest immediately.  The best time to invest is 20 years ago, the second best time is right now.

x2

This is how I see it!

[Laura33]

Part of me says just buy it now and get on with it.

This is the part of yourself to listen to.  :-)

And congrats!!

[stachestache]

Thank you everyone for the input!

[thenextguy]

Greetings,

I have saved up the minimum initial investment of $10K to buy VTSAX. As I write this, the share price is $62.23 and at a mini-peak (technical term). My plan for this fund it to put $450 every-other week into it. Should I wait for the share price to drop a  little before putting the $10k into it to open the account? I understand that dollar-cost-averaging will help me in the long run and buying shares every other week should take care of that.

Actually, lump sum investing beats dollar cost averaging most of the time.

[jlcnuke]

I will provide you with this guarantee about long-term investing using index funds:
At some point they will go down in value. In fact, I promise this will happen repeatedly and you cannot accurately predict when that will happen and for how long. Thus, you hold when it's going up and you hold when it's going down. As such, there's no reason to sell to try and avoid dips and there's no reason to avoid buying "in case" there is a dip. Buy when you can buy and hold until you're ready to start your long-term withdrawals.

Regarding DCA
DCA doesn't traditionally mean "only buy some of what you can afford now", it traditionally means "keep buying over time". In general that would be a set amount all the time on a repeating schedule, but in practical terms you won't always buy the same amount (generally you hope that over time your scheduled amounts would increase and they'd be in addition to any lump-sum buys you could make over the years as well).

[stachestache]

and I am being "that guy"

Regarding DCA
DCA doesn't traditionally mean "only buy some of what you can afford now", it traditionally means "keep buying over time". In general that would be a set amount all the time on a repeating schedule, but in practical terms you won't always buy the same amount (generally you hope that over time your scheduled amounts would increase and they'd be in addition to any lump-sum buys you could make over the years as well).

Greetings,

My plan for this fund it to put $450 every-other week into it.

[WildJager]

and I am being "that guy"

Regarding DCA
DCA doesn't traditionally mean "only buy some of what you can afford now", it traditionally means "keep buying over time". In general that would be a set amount all the time on a repeating schedule, but in practical terms you won't always buy the same amount (generally you hope that over time your scheduled amounts would increase and they'd be in addition to any lump-sum buys you could make over the years as well).

Greetings,

My plan for this fund it to put $450 every-other week into it.

Statistically you're better off investing in a lump sum what you have on hand in cash now (2/3rds of the time you're better off).

https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/s315.pdf

DCA is an observation, not a strategy.  It will happen naturally when you invest what you can every month from your paycheck.

[swinginbeef]

Investing monthly (weekly, daily, other), as funds become available isn't dollar cost averaging, it's lump sum investing. It would be dollar cost averaging if your monthly investment budget became available on the 1st of the month but instead of depositing it then, you buy 1/30 each day. DCA is less than ideal for investing, but the math works when used for other purposes such as buying gas. Buying $10 of gas on a schedule, rather than filling the tank when it's low, will leave you money ahead over time.

[caffeine]

You had to save up $10,000 for VTSAX, but couldn't you just get the Total Market Investor Shares at $3,000 (VTSMX) and convert it later to Admiral Shares when you got to 10k? Doesn't it automatically convert also at some time interval?

[Highbeam]

Yes, could have invested at 3k$ in VTSMX.

[Valhalla]

If you are not invested in the market now, I agree with the rest of the group and say do it now.

Personally, I am already 80% invested in the market.  I have 10% in cash which I'm waiting for a dip in the market before buying.

It's like anything - buy when others are selling, and sell when others are buying, you'll make the most money that way.  I'm waiting for some news to panic the market and then dump my 10% into the market.  It might still go down, but at least I'm not buying at the continual peak of the market.