We are new to MMM and are lucky to earn good incomes. After the government share and our expenses, we have about $105K per year to invest. We are looking to secure FI within 5-7 years (hubby may keep working though due to his personal preference).
Now that we have SL debt gone and most of our mortgage debt behind us (we recently refi'd to 2.625% on $40K remaining balance for pmt of $161 per month).
My question is on how to invest? We are new to this and previously had everything on automatic investment plan 2x per month because we had a fixed amount each month while we were paying down the mortgage. It was easy and I didn't think about. Now the amount we will invest varies greatly and I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around how we should think about the investment buying process.
We have our mutual funds picked out and have anywhere from ~$5K-$10K each month to invest in taxable investment account (note this does not include our non-deductible IRA/backdoor Roth/401k's). Right now, we are sitting on about $15K in our investment account (note: this is not our emergency fund which is in a FDIC insured account) and it is killing me that it is not invested. With December savings right around the corner, it is like a water faucet that we cannot turn off (yes, good problem to have). I guess I was used to sending off $3 payments to our mortgage principle or SL debt previously....I like the instant results. I hate that investments don't work the same way.
Do most people invest lump sum each month? Do you just buy all your investments once per month? Do you break up your monthly investment amount by 4 and invest a portion of it each week into each mutual fund? Do you do automatic investing? What about when you get an unexpected refund or save money - how do you invest that money since mutual funds have minimum investments?
We use YNAB too, if that helps.
I know I am putting way too much thought into it - but I am hoping to get insight into how others buy their taxable investments each month. Hopefully my question is clear.