Why you need to know about dollar-cost averaging
We caught up with Kiwibank Chief Economist — Zoe Wallis who explains dollar-cost averaging and the benefits of this type of investing. Here’s Zoe…
At the moment, the share market appears to be going swimmingly. Stock prices are hitting new record high after record high. But can this keep going?
Eventually, the party may come to an end, and we could experience a fall in stock prices. If it does should you panic!?… Nope!
With a well-diversified portfolio, often a fall in prices (also known as an equity market correction) can be an opportunity to shop at Karen Walker and pay Warehouse prices!
Getting a ‘good price’
But how do you know when shares are expensive or cheap? Often it’s really hard to tell until after the fact. And even the pros can end up getting their timing wrong. This is where dollar cost averaging comes in.
Dollar-cost averaging is when you choose to invest a certain amount on a particular investment regularly, regardless of what the price is. This means when prices are high you will end up with fewer shares, but when prices are low you will end up with more.
This is an investment technique that aims to average out the amount you spend on shares over time, rather than catching the market at a specific high or low point.
For example
Say I’m interested in buying some shares in the NZ Top 50 fund. They might cost me $2.40 per unit today, $2.50 next month, and $2.20 the month after that. If I bought 100 units each month I’d have 300 units with an average price of $2.37 per unit.
If I bought all 300 units at today’s price, then it would end up costing me $9 more overall.
While that doesn’t sound like that much, if we extrapolate that out over bigger amounts and over your whole investing life, it can add up quite quickly. Not to mention the added stress of wondering whether you’ve just bought everything at the very top of the market (or sold everything at the bottom)!
Smooth ride
Averaging-in can be a really handy way to avoid the ups and downs of financial markets and is a technique every investor should consider using. Sharesies enables dollar-cost averaging really well as you don’t get charged per transaction.
This means you can make regular purchases of small amounts whenever you like and start getting some runs on the board with as little as $5, rather than having to save up until you have larger amounts to invest.
Sharesies is making investing easy for everyone. To get started, sign up on our website. And to stay up to date with what we’re up to, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Ok, now for the legal bit.
Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. The info provided above isn’t a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial products available through the Sharesies platform. Before investing, consider your investment objectives and read the fund’s product disclosure statement carefully. It contains the fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and other information which should be considered carefully before investing.
