Little amounts regularly into Vanguard?

[aussiegal]

Hi there,

Have recently begun investing regularly into the Australian version of the vanguard index fund. I am investing about $1000 per month, but my question is, is it better to invest $250 per week, or make 1 transaction at $1000 per month?

In theory the costs shouldn't make any difference, but may get more variation in price if doing weekly.

What are people's thoughts?

[sol]

I would set it up to invest as often as you get paid.  In the long run it shouldn't matter, but this makes it easier to track.

[RyanAtTanagra]

once a week vs once a month probably won't have much of a difference, but in general you want to get money into the market as soon as possible so it can start riding the wave up

[BarkyardBQ]

I agree with the previous 2 posts entirely... unless your paying commission on the purchase. If your trades are commission free, then buy as often as possible. If not, then you'll likely burn any advantage of DCA, and I would consider once a month good enough.

[wenchsenior]

I would set it up to invest as often as you get paid.  In the long run it shouldn't matter, but this makes it easier to track.

This is what I do, and it's very easy. I'm rarely investing more than 750-1000 at a time, but I do it bi-weekly on the dot.

[terran]

If this is an IRA like account (tax advantaged) then every paycheck makes sense to me. If not, and depending how the Australian tax code works, fewer larger deposits might be better. In the US at least fewer "tax lots" make things simpler when figuring capital gains taxes.

[forummm]

If this is an IRA like account (tax advantaged) then every paycheck makes sense to me. If not, and depending how the Australian tax code works, fewer larger deposits might be better. In the US at least fewer "tax lots" make things simpler when figuring capital gains taxes.

In the US, the brokerages are required to track each share for you if you want to use that basis, so it's not any more difficult. If you want to use average cost basis, the brokerages track that for you too, so it's also not any more difficult.

[aussiegal]

Thanks for all of the responses!

There isn't a brokerage cost, but a buy/sell spread, although frequency won't have much impact on this.

Mmm, CGT is a problem potentially, although I plan on holding for the very long term, so not a huge concern. I think fortnightly when I get paid is a good plan!