Dollar-Cost Averaging

Are you retiring or changing jobs and have a rollover? Getting a bonus or expecting a large tax-refund. Let’s invest it!

As we work with new clients or are adding additional investment dollars with our existing clients you may hear Mike or myself set forth a plan for Dollar-Cost Averaging. This is an investment technique we utilize to invest a specific amount regularly (usually monthly) over a period of time. As an example, if you invested $400,000 right now many people would not be comfortable investing the entire amount in the market at once and in truth that strategy may not pay off unless we are in a market that is much less robust than the one we are experiencing now. Dollar-cost averaging will allow you, the investor, to average the price of the investments you purchase over time; sometimes buying higher, sometimes buying lower.

Dollar-Cost Averaging takes away the emotion of investing as well as any attempts to “time the market”. You may earn a larger return by investing in a lump sum, if you get lucky, but we have found that Dollar-Cost Averaging helps to mitigate short-term risk and help our clients focus on a long-term approach. Our job as Advisors is to help you navigate various aspect of investing but we have found one of the most important aspects of our job is to measure your risk aversion and manage your market expectations accordingly – Dollar-Cost Averaging is one of the many tools we use to assist us.