When to Invest?

[LearningMustachian72]

Hi,

I max out my 401k and thus recently opened a brokerage.

My 401k is funded every 2 weeks from my paycheck but how do others go about finding their brokerage accounts?  Regular intervals, wait for slight dips, etc?

Thanks.

[Freedomin5]

Regular intervals. Remember, it’s “time in the market” not “timing the market”.

[ixtap]

If you have regular pay, invest with regular intervals.

We generally invest ESPP and RSUs, so it ends up as lump sums.

[Uturn]

Every payday, I transfer a set amount to my brokerage account.  Also, if my checking account gets above $3k after monthly bills are paid, the excess goes to brokerage.  Unless something comes up that I need extra money for. Such as yesterday I got new tires and that $800 would usually go to brokerage but went to the tire store instead. 

[cool7hand]

Whenever money comes in, we invest. +1 on not timing the market but time in the market

[Tyson]

Hi,

I max out my 401k and thus recently opened a brokerage.

My 401k is funded every 2 weeks from my paycheck but how do others go about finding their brokerage accounts?  Regular intervals, wait for slight dips, etc?

Thanks.

If you have a big chunk of cash, the answer is "Invest immediately".  If you have an ongoing paycheck, the answer is "every paycheck".

[goodmoneygoodlife]

Yeah just dollar-cost average with your cashflow and watch it grow over time.

Don't wait for tips because that predicates on the assumption that you could predict the future (i.e. that it'll even dip soon enough for there not to be an opportunity cost in terms of inflation and theta, or that if it dips it'll dip enough for it to matter in the long run).

[JoePublic3.14]

I somewhat randomly selected the 5th of the month for an automatic purchase in taxable. Been that way since around 1995. The investment has evolved as I got more savvy. It now is all VTSAX all the time. A couple big dips has allowed me to sneak out of all but one of the old investments and consolidate in VTSAX without major tax hit. The last one will be donated most likely at some point.

Set it and forget it!

Oh, great job getting the 401k maxed.

[Radagast]

Every paycheck. Trying to get the timing right is almost certain to fail. Just ask Robert awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market-timer/

Why work harder for worse results?

[ChickenStash]

Mine are just timed along with my paycheck - every 2 weeks. 401k comes out automatically so I never see it, Roth IRA is auto-deposited to Vanguard, brokerage is an auto-withdrawal from my checking account the day after payday. I don't have a set schedule for dumping the "slush" left over in the checking account but I usually wait until a three pay period month and do a cleanup after the last check.

I'm not clever enough or interested enough to succeed at market timing so I don't bother.