The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: DK on February 22, 2014, 10:28:35 AM
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So while doing my taxes this year I realized I planned a bit off to stay in the 15% bracket, and needed to switch some money into a Traditional IRA. I opened it up through vanguard, but was curious on the forums thoughts on what to invest in, and when?
Per things I've read, I was thinking the total stock market index (I believe that's VTI?) but am not sure if I should invest it all at once, or perhaps wait to see if their is a correction that will soon occur due to the stock markets current PE?
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VTSAX is the Vanguard Index Fund.
When? Now. "Waiting for a correction" is akin to market timing, which is the wrong way to think about it. Think about whether the money will be worth more in 20-30 years, not a couple of years.
There was a recent thread concerning investing a lump sum vs. dollar cost averaging which has some discussion on market timing. Invest now and forget about minor corrections and surges.
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Invest as much as you're comfortable with. You don't need to do it all lump sum, and you don't need to do a year long dollar-cost averaging (DCA) plan. Try putting half of it in VTI now, then wait a couple months. If it drops a few points, invest and feel great about waiting. If it rises a few points, still invest, and chalk up the "loss" to a learning experience.