Dollar Cost Averaging – Pros and Cons of Systematic Investing

Dollar Cost Averaging is the easiest way to systematically invest in the stock market. Through Dollar Cost Averaging or DCA, you can buy more shares when stock prices are low and fewer when prices are high. It’s the easiest way to automate your investing. If you’ve been following the financial markets recently, you know that things have been turbulent. For many people, all this volatility is scary. After all, how do you know when to put your money in the market — and when to pull it back out? The good news is that you don’t have to know when to put money in and pull it out if you consider using an investing strategy called dollar cost averaging. It’s a strategy that works for long-term wealth building using the stock market.

What is Dollar Cost Averaging?

Dollar-cost averaging is a common investment strategy where you invest the same amount at set intervals. This takes the guesswork out of market timing, and you don’t need to worry about trying to “time the market.” Because the amount you invest remains constant, you can buy more shares when the price is low and fewer shares at a higher price. The goal is to buy more shares at a lower average cost per share over time. This sounds like a great way to invest, and it can be. But there are times when there are better ways of investing than dollar cost averaging. For example, many experts believe lump sum investing can result in better returns than investing a little over time. The idea behind lump sum investing is that the longer you have your money in the market, the more money you will make. Lump sum investing works best if you have a lot of money to invest at once.

Lump sum investing vs. dollar cost averaging. Here is an online tool that calculates actual returns using dollar cost averaging vs. investing in a lump sum. If you play with the tool for a few minutes, you will find examples where lump sum investing wins out, and examples when dollar cost averaging brings better returns.

Even though lump sum investing can result in better returns over the long run, let’s look at an example of dollar cost averaging and why it makes sense to invest that way.

Dollar Cost Averaging Example

Let’s use dollar cost averaging to max out a Roth IRA. The max you can invest in a Roth IRA in 2022 is $6,000. Many people don’t have $6,000 to put down at once. However, they may be able to break it down into monthly payments. Here is how dollar cost averaging would look if you broke down an IRA investment over 12 months (The numbers represent a fictional fund): In this example, you can see that as the price per share goes up, you can buy fewer shares, and as the price per share goes down, you buy more shares. Note that the average share price is $30.85, less than the share price in January. In this example, dollar cost averaging comes ahead of investing in a lump sum, but it could come out with the opposite result.

Pros and Cons of Systematic Investing with Dollar Cost Averaging

The idea behind dollar cost averaging is that, eventually, it all evens out in terms of the overall cost. Sometimes you will pay less for your shares, and sometimes more, depending on the market. The important thing with dollar cost averaging is investing consistently. Let’s look at some advantages and disadvantages of investing through dollar cost averaging.

Pros of Dollar Cost Averaging

Affordability. Dollar cost averaging is more affordable and allows people to treat investing like paying a bill. It is difficult for most people to invest a $6,000 lump sum to max out a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA. However, many people may be able to afford a monthly installment of $500.00, which will put them on pace to max out their IRA for the year. A similar example is investing in the Thrift Savings Plan, which is deducted directly from your paycheck. Even if you could afford to invest the $20,500 limit from your cash savings at the beginning of the year, your paycheck probably wouldn’t be large enough to cover that. Most people also rely upon their paychecks to pay bills throughout the month. A TSP or other employer-sponsored retirement plan forces the participant to use dollar cost averaging. Convenience. It is easy to set up dollar cost averaging as a monthly payment and incorporate it into your budget.

Cons of Dollar Cost Averaging

Lump sum investing can result in better returns. Lump sum investing can often result in better returns because you have your money in the market longer. This is based on the idea that the longer you have your money in the market, the better your returns are over the long run. More fees. Dollar cost averaging also means making more transactions, which can result in higher brokerage fees. You won’t pay transaction fees if you invest in the TSP or an index fund that doesn’t charge commissions. But you may have to pay fees if you make monthly stock or mutual fund purchases. You can mitigate these fees by investing quarterly or semi-annually. This is still a form of dollar cost averaging on a different timescale.

Dollar Cost Averaging vs. Value Averaging

Dollar cost averaging is not a perfect method of investing, but it has its benefits – it is easy to set up and takes very little upkeep. While most people are familiar with dollar cost averaging, there is a similar investment strategy called dollar value averaging, or simply value averaging. Here is a comparison of the two investment methods:

Dollar Cost Averaging

Dollar cost averaging is investing the same amount at set intervals, regardless of the share price. A good example would be bi-monthly contributions to a retirement plan such as a TSP or IRA. With dollar cost averaging, a steady contribution will buy more shares when prices are low, and fewer shares when prices are high. This takes the guesswork out of systematic investing and smoothes the average purchase price for your shares.

Value Averaging

A similar investing technique is value averaging, which involves changing your periodic investment contributions. With value averaging, you start with the end goal in mind and work toward a target number. Let’s say you have a target portfolio value of $12,000 by year-end, which means you need to grow your portfolio by $1,000 per month. You contribute $1,000 the first month, then make subsequent contributions based on the total portfolio amount. If in the second month the value of your shares drops to $900, you would contribute $1,100 to bring the portfolio’s total value to $2,000. If the value of the shares rose to $1,100, you would only need to contribute $900 to bring the portfolio’s value to $2,000.

How is Value Averaging Different from Dollar Cost Averaging?

With DCA, you always contribute the same amount of money, so you buy more shares when prices are low only because the shares cost less. With VA, you buy more shares because the prices are lower, and you contribute more money. Conversely, with VA, you buy fewer shares when prices are higher because share prices are higher and you contribute less money.  In effect, it gives you more bang for your buck.

Pros and Cons of Value Averaging

The main benefit of value averaging is that it forces investors to contribute less money when prices are high and contribute more money when prices are low, as opposed to dollar cost averaging, which uses the same contribution regardless of the share price. Value averaging can have better results in the long run because you contribute more money when shares are lower. To employ correctly, value averaging also requires investors to know where they stand regarding reaching their investment goal, which is another added benefit. There are several disadvantages of value averaging. Value averaging takes more time than DCA, which runs on auto-pilot once you start it. Another disadvantage is when share prices fall so much, it takes large investments to bring many portfolios back up to the goal. The 2008 economic crisis is a good example of this. The 2008-2009 recession decimated stock prices. Trying to make additional contributions when many people are hurting for cash flow is not always possible. Another disadvantage is withholding contributions because you have already met your goal for the year. The bull market that followed the Great Recession was unprecedented and led to multiple record-high stock markets. If an investor decided they had met their goals and could slow down contributions, they might have missed out on substantial gains in their portfolio.

More information about value averaging. Former Harvard professor Michael E. Edleson developed Dollar Value Averaging. This investment technique was introduced in his book, Value Averaging: The Safe and Easy Strategy for Higher Investment Returns.

Why You Should Consider Dollar Cost Averaging

Dollar cost averaging is so effective because you can get started fairly easily with a small amount of money and consistently invest over time. You don’t need a huge amount of capital to get started. You can start investing through payroll allotments in your TSP with as low as 1% of your salary. Some plans even allow you to begin investing with less than that. For example, many online brokers don’t have a minimum required amount to open an account. Many of the large mutual fund companies will let you get started with an initial deposit of between $25 and $100 and a monthly investment of between $25 and $50. You can set it up so that your investment automatically comes out of your bank account each month on a certain day. Most brokerages will also allow you to make a recurring investment, so your investment is totally automated. Throughout all this time, you are investing consistently. You continue to invest even when the market is down (more shares for your money!). Historically, the market has risen over time. With a buy and hold strategy that involves an index fund or a very carefully chosen stock (consider a dividend aristocrat; many online brokerages will automatically reinvest your dividends without charging a transaction fee), you can build your wealth gradually, benefiting from the fact that you are consistently buying shares. For most of us “regular” folks, that’s the best we can hope for — and it’s a fairly tried and true way to build wealth while limiting risks. There is still risk involved in investing, and you still need to be careful. However, you can reduce some of your risks, and build a consistent nest egg, if you follow a dollar cost averaging strategy.

Conclusion – DCA is the Easiest Way to Consistently Invest

The point of dollar cost averaging is not to try and time the market – it is to save or invest with amounts of money you can afford. The amount you can invest could be as low as $25 a month or into the thousands. The point is to get into the habit of investing, and dollar cost averaging provides investors with an easy and affordable way to invest money regularly. Dollar Cost Averaging is the easiest way for most people to consistently invest in the stock market. This can easily be accomplished through automatic payroll deductions, such as 401k contributions, monthly IRA contributions, and other automatic investments. That said, stock prices go up, and stock prices go down. No investment method will guarantee gains in the stock market. However, it is safe to say that using dollar cost averaging or value averaging provides a system to follow and promotes disciplined investing. And disciplined contributions are key to reaching your financial goals.