In March 2020, international markets nose-dived due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impacts. At that time, I had been an attending physician for only six months. I decided to make a significant, one-time investment in low-expense-ratio index funds, knowing the market would eventually grow and I would compound over time. Fortunately, this bear market was relatively short-lived, and my investment was worthwhile.
With the bear market in 2022, I increased my dollar-cost averaging investment strategy interval from monthly to weekly investments. The idea is that instead of guessing when the market will be at a low, I’m investing a fixed amount at regular intervals (each week) regardless of the security’s price. This strategy aims to reduce the impact of short-term market fluctuations.
Fidelity makes this process easy through recurring investments. I have it set such that every Monday, funds are pulled from my brokerage account’s core position (basically, “cash” sitting there not invested in anything) and invested in Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) and Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS).
Drop me a comment below with questions!
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