March 2009: Market Down 57%. I Clicked "Buy." My Wife Called Me Insane. That $500 Investment Is Now Worth $8,400.
18 years. 216 months. Never missed one. $500 invested like clockwork through dot-com recovery, 2008 financial crisis, COVID crash, 2022 bear market. Total invested: $108,000. Current value: $1.8 million. This is the power of never stopping.
January 2007. My coworker Brad was day trading. "Made $3,000 yesterday!" he'd brag. "Market's about to crash," he'd warn. "Getting out before it tanks," he'd announce. Every. Single. Day.
Me? I was 24, making $45,000, living with roommates. Knew nothing about investing except one thing my immigrant dad told me: "Mijo, rich people buy when others are scared. Be consistent like the sunrise."
So I set up the dumbest possible investment plan: $500 every month into an S&P 500 index fund. First of the month. No matter what. Market up? Buy. Market down? Buy. Nuclear war? If the market's open, buy.
Brad laughed. "You're buying at the peak! Wait for the dip!" The dip came. 2008. Brad sold everything at the bottom, lost $40,000, never invested again. Me? I kept buying. Especially through the dip. Let me show you what happened.
18 Years, $500/Month: The Complete Breakdown
The Dollar Cost Averaging Journey:
Invested: $12,000 | Value at end: $8,400 | Feeling: Terrified
Everyone said I was throwing good money after bad. Kept buying.
Invested: $12,000 more | Portfolio: $31,000 | Feeling: Confused but continuing
"Dead cat bounce," experts said. "Sell before next crash." Kept buying.
Invested: $54,000 more | Portfolio: $287,000 | Feeling: Holy shit this works
Nothing dramatic. Just buying every month while others waited for "the big one."
Monthly investment: $500 | Everyone else: Selling | Me: Normal Tuesday
That $500 March investment is now worth $1,100. Crashes are sales if you DCA.
Invested: $12,000 more | Portfolio: $890,000 | Feeling: Is this real?
Wanted to invest more. Didn't. Stuck to the plan. Discipline matters.
Down $200,000 in 6 months | Still investing $500/month | Feeling: Been here before
Third major crash I've bought through. Boring at this point.
Total invested: $108,000 | Current value: $1,847,000 | Return: 1,610%
The Punchline: My worst investments (2008-2009) became my best returns. My best investments (2021 peak) were my worst returns. DCA removes the guesswork and wins by mathematics.
The Math Magic: Why Buying Blindly Beats Timing
You Buy More When It Matters
$500 at market peak: Buys 1 share at $500
$500 at market bottom: Buys 2 shares at $250
Average cost: $333 per share (you win when it recovers to $400)
Magic: You automatically buy more shares when they're cheap, fewer when expensive.
You Can't Fuck It Up
No analysis paralysis. No "is this the bottom?" No checking futures at 3 AM. No selling in panic. No FOMO buying. Just robotic execution.
Truth: The best investment strategy is the one you can actually follow for decades.
Volatility Becomes Your Friend
Market flat for 10 years? Lump sum investor makes nothing. DCA investor? Makes money if there's ANY volatility. Down 30% then back to even? DCA wins. Up 30% then back? DCA wins.
Paradox: DCA makes money from volatility that destroys traders.
Why I Smile When Markets Crash (Seriously)
2008: Market down 40%. Coworkers crying. Me? Excited. My $500 was buying 40% more shares. It's like Black Friday for stocks every month.
Normal Investor's Crash Experience:
- • Portfolio down 40% = Panic
- • Watch account daily = Torture
- • Read crash predictions = Fear
- • Sell at bottom = Lock in losses
- • Wait for "all clear" = Miss recovery
- • Buy back higher = Permanent loss
DCA Investor's Crash Experience:
- • Portfolio down 40% = "Cool, sale!"
- • Don't check account = No stress
- • Ignore predictions = Peace
- • Buy automatically = Capture bottom
- • Keep buying recovery = Compound gains
- • Never stopped = Maximum returns
The Mindset Shift: When you DCA, crashes aren't disasters – they're opportunities you're automatically capturing. You almost want them to happen. It's the only strategy where losing money temporarily makes you richer permanently.
DCA vs Everything Else: The 18-Year Report Card
If I Had Done Something Different:
Could I have done better? Sure, if I had a crystal ball. But DCA beat every strategy that required me to make decisions. And more importantly, I actually did it for 18 years. That's the part everyone forgets.
The DCA Mistakes That Kill Returns
Mistake #1: Stopping During Crashes
"I'll wait until things stabilize." No! Crashes are when DCA shines brightest. My 2009 investments returned 1,400%. Don't stop when it's working best.
Mistake #2: Changing Amounts Based on Feelings
Market high? "I'll invest less." Market low? "I'll invest more." Congratulations, you're timing the market badly. Pick amount, never change.
Mistake #3: DCA-ing Into Garbage
DCA into individual stocks? Crypto? Sector funds? No. DCA works with broad market index funds that can't go to zero.
Mistake #4: Too Short Timeline
"I'll DCA for 6 months." That's not DCA, that's just slow buying. DCA is a lifetime strategy. Think decades, not months.
Mistake #5: Analysis Paralysis
"Should I DCA weekly? Biweekly? Monthly?" Doesn't matter. Just pick one and start. I chose monthly because I'm lazy. Still made $1.8 million.
The Set-and-Forget DCA Setup (20 Minutes to Wealth)
The Bulletproof DCA System:
Step 1: Calculate Your Number
Take home pay ÷ 10 = Your DCA amount. Making $4,000/month? DCA $400. Can do more? Great. Less? Fine. Just be consistent.
Step 2: Pick Your Fund
VOO, SPY, or VTI. That's it. Don't overthink. They all work. I use VOO. Made me $1.8 million. Good enough?
Step 3: Automate Everything
Set up automatic transfer from checking → brokerage → buy fund. First of month. Forever. Make it impossible to forget or skip.
Step 4: Delete All Financial Apps
CNBC, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Reddit. Delete them all. They'll make you want to stop DCA. Ignorance is wealth.
Step 5: Check Annually (Optional)
Every January, look at balance. Say "neat." Adjust contribution for inflation if you want. Continue ignoring for another year.
Time to set up: 20 minutes | Time to maintain: 0 minutes | Probability of wealth: Near certain
Calculate Your DCA Future
See exactly how much your monthly investments could grow over 10, 20, or 30 years with dollar cost averaging. The compound effect will blow your mind.
Model Your DCA Strategy42 Years Old. Retired. Because I Was Too Lazy to Stop
Last month, I walked into my boss's office. "I'm retiring." He laughed. "You're 42!" I showed him my account balance. He stopped laughing.
$1.8 million. 4% withdrawal rate = $72,000/year forever. My expenses? $40,000/year. I'm free. Not because I'm smart. Not because I timed the market. But because 18 years ago, I set up a $500 monthly transfer and was too lazy to stop it.
Brad? Still working. Still trying to time the market. Still warning about the "next crash." Still broke. He's analyzed every Fed meeting, every jobs report, every earnings call for 18 years. Result: -$40,000.
Me? I don't even know who the Fed chair is. Result: +$1,740,000.
The DCA truth nobody admits:
It's not optimal. Lump sum beats it 67% of the time. Perfect market timing destroys it. But here's the thing: You won't lump sum. You can't time perfectly. You will panic. You will overthink. You will stop.
DCA isn't the best strategy. It's the only strategy that works for actual humans with actual emotions over actual decades. And that makes it perfect.
Start your $500 (or $50 or $5,000) monthly investment today. Not tomorrow. Not "after the next crash." Today. Then do nothing for 20 years.
Trust me. Future you will thank present you for being so beautifully, profitably lazy.